In pictures: Making cancer trials more patient- and investor-friendly
A social media tool makes patients more liable to participate
Punit Dhillon, right, co-founded a company to develop cancer treatments two years ago in San Diego. The reason he chose the U.S. instead of Canada for his firm, OncoSec Medical Inc., is that it’s easier to recruit patients for clinical trials south of the border. But now he has partnered with Smart Patients, an online community that creates a dialogue between doctors and patients and makes it easier for OncoSec to find patients interested in participating in trials. With him is Roni Zeiger, a co-founder of Smart Patients.Kim White/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Dhillon, centre, is optimistic that his partnership with Smart Patients will lead to more efficient clinical trials and help expand OncoSec’s next phase of research to Canada. With him is Roni Zeiger of Smart Patients, left, and Kevin Lawrence, also of Smart Patients, in Mountain View, Calif.Kim White/The Globe and Mail
Kevin Lawrence works at the Smart Patients headquarters in California. Through Smart Patients, more practical aspects of clinical trials can be addressed, such as how far patients may be willing to travel, the number of treatments and how they are administered. This makes patients more apt to become comfortable with participating in a trial.Kim White/The Globe and Mail
An employee at OncoSec handles a syringe used for cancerous tumours. Oncology clinical trials take an average of 50 per cent longer to conduct than those for other diseases, and the bottleneck is patient recruiting, which takes 75 per cent longer than with other diseases.
A technician works in an OncoSec lab in California. “It costs millions of dollars for development of a new therapy. If we can economize on any aspect and get better understandings based on collaborations between doctors and patients, it becomes more efficient,” Mr. Dhillon says.