Early phase development:

Early phase clinical trials are the first major hurdles a drug candidate faces on its path to market. 

Approaching early phase trials strategically and anticipating obstacles can be critical to the later success of a therapeutic. For biotechs, which often have fewer resources and face pressure to proceed through trials quickly, there is little room for error. Failure of a clinical trial can be a devastating blow, making it imperative to take every possible measure to help the drug candidate succeed. 

Drug development is however becoming increasingly more complex, which is presenting more hurdles for biotechs. To better understand these challenges ICON conducted a survey of 149 professionals from small and mid-sized biotech companies (99 - 999 employees) based in North America, and Europe who have a molecule in preclinical phase with plans to move to clinical testing soon, or in the middle/at the end of a phase 1 clinical trial.

• Current obstacles progressing from preclinical to clinical testing 
• Challenges in the clinical development planning process and the approaches to plan formulation
• Perceived and actual challenges they faced upon moving to the clinical testing stages 
• Phase 1 CRO partnering considerations including the services and attributes they value most 
• How CRO’s can better support biotechs during the early stages of drug development and clinical testing