COVID-19 has been a catalyst in optimising research and development and streamlining regulatory processes. Some of the elements that in the context of COVID-19 have simplified procedures, minimised non-value adding activities and accelerated delivery, should be evaluated and tested to help us address health challenges.

We’ll seek to incorporate the learnings and innovative approaches from this crisis situation into the post COVID-19 era and we look forward to working with all stakeholders in order to make treatments available to patients, as fast as possible.

“Unfortunately children and young people suffer diseases so they deserve the same opportunities as adult patients to be involved in the design and conduct of health research projects” says Begonya Nafria, Coordinator of YEAH. “We learn with them when we include them as a part of our projects. The most important benefit is that involving young people relevant results in the delivery of better initiatives are ultimately better medicines for children and young people. The celebration of the Clinical Trials World Day is a great opportunity to highlight the need of meaningful research for children and young people”.

May 20 is International Clinical Trials Day. Clinical Trials are essential for improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Pharmaceutical companies have been facing a unique situation related to the spread of Covid-19. They have had to continue these missions under optimal conditions for the safety of patients participating in clinical trials. Lydie Poitout, Head of Clinical Trial Management Department within Clinical Operations at Servier, explains how the Servier Group has adapted to the circumstances.

Sofia has breast cancer. Each month she travels from her home in Eastern Europe to a hospital in northern Italy to participate in a clinical trial. Traveling such distances for a clinical trial is uncommon, but Sofia was eager to participate in this particular trial for her condition.

But everything changed when the coronavirus (COVID-19) took hold on the continent. With transport links rapidly shutting down due to the pandemic, Sofia was no longer able to make the trip to Italy. A Novartis team couriered her experimental treatment across Europe.