Dr. Rebecca Cramp
Director of Code and Regulatory Affairs, IPHA
Patients in Ireland deserve a strong clinical research infrastructure to provide access to treatments. However, reforms are needed for efficient trials to benefit patients with breakthrough medicines.
Healthcare providers in Irish hospitals and academic institutions have shown their ability and commitment to driving world-class research. However, according to the IPHA Clinical Trials Activity Comparison Report 2024, which captures data across a 10-year period from 2014 to 2023, Ireland attracted fewer industry-sponsored interventional clinical trials than Finland and Denmark in that period despite their similar population size and economic wealth.
Interventional clinical trials in Ireland
The Report shows that IPHA member companies sponsored or collaborated in 292 out of 460 listed all-industry sponsored interventional clinical trials that were occurring in Ireland. Most (68%) of these interventional clinical trials in Ireland were in Phase III.
Cancer accounted for just over half of all IPHA member-sponsored interventional clinical trials, with other therapy areas — such as gastroenterology, immunology and endocrinology — accounting for 21%.
Collaboration by all stakeholders including the
Government, hospitals, academic institutions and
industry is required to reform the clinical trial process.
How to reform Ireland’s clinical trials process
While Ireland currently lags behind other EU countries in terms of the number of clinical trials being conducted here, reforms are needed in the clinical trials process in Ireland. If we get them right, more patients will benefit from breakthrough innovation in medicines.
Collaboration by all stakeholders including the Government, hospitals, academic institutions and industry is required to reform the clinical trial process and help accelerate new medicines’ development. This will raise standards of care for patients in Ireland.
IPHA continues to urge for this reform through the following five steps:
- Provide standardised clinical trial startup requirements (including Data Protection Impact Assessments) and timelines for hospitals;
- Designate specific clinical trial signatories in each hospital and a standard, timely sign-off process;
- Appoint one permanent clinical research nurse post for each teaching hospital;
- Ring-fence clinical trial funding and working time for multidisciplinary research;
- Protect dedicated clinical research time.
Ireland can play a leading role in the provision of clinical trials in Europe, but this can only be achieved through a predictable, transparent and efficient clinical research system, which is necessary to attract more clinical trials.
