Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency (JTF) Biannual Global Meeting

June 6, 2024 @ 9:00 am 11:00 am

Virtual Event

Details: The Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency (JTF), anchored at the MRCT Center, is dedicated to developing and disseminating standards and practices for the clinical research workforce. The JTF fosters a cohesive, global approach to ensuring that professionals have the necessary competencies to conduct clinical trials effectively and ethically.

The public is invited to attend virtual biannual meetings, which happen twice a year.

Meeting Details: The meeting included information about a comprehensive training program in Canada based on the JTF Framework and other updates. There will also be a time for open discussion with meeting participants.

Key Topics:

  • Cantrain: The Canadian Consortium of Clinical Trial Training
  • CIOMS Update
  • Updates:  Deploying the JTF Framework around the World: Arabic Translation
  • 3CTN Updates
  • How a competency-based program will contribute to early clinical research professionals’ training

REACH: Advancing DEI in Human Participant Research

Webinar

Presented on: March 7, 2024

Introducing Research Ethics Action Collaborative for HRPPs (REACH), an initiative spearheaded by the MRCT Center, AAHRPP, PRIM&R, and Mass General Brigham to curate, align, and disseminate tools to advance access to and inclusion in research—for all potential participants–tailored for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), Human Research Protection Programs (HRPPs), and the broader community. 

We Need Your Voice:
Your perspective is invaluable to us. Help guide our efforts to improve research access and inclusion by sharing your thoughts via our brief survey. Your feedback is critical in shaping the tools and resources we develop and disseminate.

Related Resources

Panelist Biographies
List of resources shared during the webinar
Questions & Answers
Survey

Global Representation: An Introduction to the Global Representation Project

Introduction


The MRCT Center’s Achieving Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in Clinical Research Guidance Document, released in late 2020 and updated in 2021, outlines a principled, multi-stakeholder approach to optimize the inclusion of diverse populations in clinical research. It is accompanied by a Toolkit, including checklists, logic models and case studies, an Equity by Design metrics framework, and resources to support ethics committees. These are all living documents, and further work, such as the inclusion of people with disabilities in clinical research, is ongoing.

As part of this further work, the MRCT Center has widened our DEI lens from domestic to Global Representation. Over the last nine months, we have collaboratively sought to better understand how concerns around diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical research are understood and prioritized in different countries and regions around the world and what this means for the many stakeholders involved in research conducted in multi-country contexts. We have several tools under development, including a draft Roadmap (prompts for developing a global diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility strategy) introduced during the [invite-only] Executive and Steering Committees meeting in December and a Diversity Action Plan (DAP) tool presented at the MRCT Annual Meeting.  

The primary objectives of this project encompass a comprehensive exploration of DEI challenges within the domain of global clinical research. These objectives are two-fold.

  1. The project is focused on a deeper comprehension of DEI issues in clinical research on a global scale. This entails seeking insights from key stakeholders such as sponsors, regulators, ethics committees, health departments, Principal Investigators (PIs), study sites, and research participants.
  2. The project is working on enhancing and expanding the existing resources and tools provided by the MRCT Center to incorporate these broader perspectives. This expansion includes supporting DEI in research endeavors within individual countries and, notably, in multi-country studies.

The preliminary scoping of the first objective has brought to light several areas of focus encompassing: the recognition that different dimensions of diversity hold varying degrees of relevance in diverse global contexts; the challenges of categorizing diversity facets like race, ethnicity, and social determinants of health in ways that remain contextually meaningful in various countries; ethical concerns related to incentivizing the participation of groups traditionally viewed as ‘vulnerable’ in research, along with associated risks of exploitation; divergent approaches of regulators worldwide regarding diversified participation in research, both in terms of licensing requirements and the endorsement of best practices; and varying motivations for addressing DEI at a global level, ranging from ethical considerations regarding broader generalizability and global access to interventions to more immediate needs for compliance with regulatory mandates in different regions.

In essence, the project seeks to synthesize these multifaceted elements into a unified strategy that addresses DEI challenges in the global clinical research landscape.

We have been drafting four principal tools:

  • A Draft Roadmap: Prompts for Developing a global diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI) strategy
  • Embedding Ethical Considerations related to global DEI
  • Working with Partner Countries to Strengthen Research Capacity
  • Diversity Action Plan (DAP) Template

If you would like to share relevant resources or insights, please contact us here.

Real World Evidence (RWE) and Emerging Trends in Clinical Trial Subject Recruitment

May 3, 2024 @ 1:30 pm 4:00 pm

Hybrid: In-person (Boston) and Virtual (Zoom)

800 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02199

Meeting of The Research, Development, and Regulatory Roundtable (R3). Meetings are open to R3 Sponsors. To learn more about how to become an R3 Sponsor, click here.

Topics:

  • Recent Developments in FDA Guidance on Real World Evidence
  • Subject-Directed Recruitment Materials and Testimonials

Abstract: Real World Evidence and Emerging Trends in Clinical Trial Subject Recruitment

Real World Evidence

In recent years, real-world evidence (“RWE”) has increasingly been incorporated into product development programs, spurred by greater access to RWE, legislative changes, and significant policy development at FDA. The use of RWE raises novel opportunities, as well as new challenges for regulators, clinical trial sponsors, and the life sciences and healthcare industry to set common standards for RWE to ensure it can be relied upon with confidence in regulatory decision-making.  

During 2023, FDA released two draft and three final guidance documents concerning RWE.  These included the following:

  •  Considerations for the Design and Conduct of Externally Controlled Trials for Drug and Biological Products (Draft, February 2023)
  • Considerations for the Use of Real-World Data and Real-World Evidence to Support Regulatory Decision-Making for Drug and Biological Products (Final, August 2023)
  • Use of Real-World Evidence to Support Regulatory Decision-Marking for Medical Devices (Draft, December 2023)
  • Data Standards for Drug and Biological Product Submissions Containing Real World Data (Final, December 2023)
  • Real-World Data:  Assessing Registries to Support Regulatory Decision-Making for Drug and Biological Products (Final, December 2023) 

This session will provide an overview of key concepts from these guidance documents, focusing in particular on how they intersect with FDA’s existing regulations on clinical investigations and how they may change the regulatory landscape.  In addition to focusing on these recent FDA guidance documents, the speakers will address the application of other U.S. regulatory regimes to RWE activities, including the Common Rule, the Information Blocking Rule, and HIPAA and other data privacy laws.

Clinical Trial Subject Recruitment Trends

Clinical trial sponsors are increasingly exploring different techniques to attract potential subjects to clinical trials, particularly in the context of rare disease studies for which subjects may be difficult to find.  These techniques have included the following:

  •  Use of testimonials featuring active clinical trial subjects in clinical trial advertisements
  •  Inclusion of detailed scientific information gathered in pre-clinical or Phase 1 studies in subject-directed recruitment materials
  • Partnerships with electronic health record vendors to identify potential trial sites or subjects

Each of these techniques raise novel regulatory questions, including concerns about pre-approval promotion, data bias, need for institutional review board review and approval, and data privacy.  

This session will analyze these trends and the attendant regulatory considerations for each.

Gene Therapies: Probing the Ethics

Meeting Summary

Presented on: December 14, 2023

Presented at: Cambridge, MA and online

The MRCT Center recently initiated a project on cell and gene therapies (CGTs), led by Carolyn Riley Chapman, PhD MS, Lead Investigator in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Member of the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. In collaboration with diverse stakeholders, the project will identify and characterize the unique ethical, regulatory, and logistical challenges related to CGT research and development; we will then develop potential solutions or approaches to help address those issues.  This meeting, held in conjunction with the Bioethics Collaborative, served, in part, as the project launch.

While the MRCT Center Bioethics Collaborative meetings are usually open only to invited guests and individuals from the organizations that sponsor the forum, this session was presented in conjunction with the 2023 MRCT Center Annual Meeting and was open to the public.

Related Resources

Cell and Gene Therapies

Cell and Gene Therapies

There is justified excitement about the emergence and potential of cell and gene therapies (CGT): a number of CGTs have recently received market approval and hundreds more are in preclinical and/or clinical development. As a new therapeutic class, there is still much to learn about the benefits and risks of CGT, necessitating complex decision-making and long-term follow-up in many trials. Many CGTs also have complex manufacturing and/or supply chain challenges. For these reasons and because of the need for specialized clinical expertise, trial sites are often geographically limited. The CGT project aims first to ascertain and characterize the ethical, regulatory, and logistical issues that are arising in the specific context of CGT research and development. We will then work to address and mitigate these challenges through a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach.

OBJECTIVES

  • Identify and characterize ethical, regulatory, and logistical challenges arising in the context of global research and development of cell and gene therapies.
  • Employ a multi-stakeholder approach to co-develop actionable and practical mechanisms for addressing these challenges to support efficient, safe, and respectful clinical development of CGT products.

KeY MILESTONES

  • June 2025: Held webinar: “Patient-Centered Long-Term Follow-Up for Gene Therapies”
  • June 2025: Carolyn Chapman spoke at the June 2025 Bridging the Gap webinar, “Ethical Issues in CGT Trials: Benefits, Risks, Long Term Follow-Up and Beyond,” sponsored by Azenta Life Sciences and the Emily Whitehead Foundation
  • May 2025: Published “Patient-centered long-term follow-up for gene therapies aligns with ethics and science” in Molecular Therapy 
  • May 2025: Two poster presentations at ASGCT meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana
  • May 2025: Held webinar: “Innovative Approaches for Gene Therapy Long-Term Follow-Up”
  • December 2024: Carolyn Chapman spoke at the Institute for Advanced Clinical Trials for Children (I-ACT)’s webinar, “Science Applications and Ethics of Cell and Gene Therapy”
  • December 2024: “What’s Up with Long-Term Follow-Up: Ethical, Regulatory, & Operational Challenges” webinar, co-hosted by the MRCT Center and NYU’s Pediatric Gene Therapy and Medical Ethics (PGTME) Working Group
  • September 2024: Launch of the Long-Term Follow-Up Working Group and of the Strategic Advisory Committee
  • May 2024: Poster presentation at ASGCT meeting in Baltimore, Maryland
  • December 2023: MRCT Center Bioethics Collaborative, “Gene Therapies: Probing the Ethics”

project Leadership & sTAFF

  • Carolyn Riley Chapman, PhD MS, MRCT Center. Lead Investigator, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Member of the Faculty, Harvard Medical School.
  • Barbara E. Bierer, MD, Faculty Director, MRCT Center.
  • Sarah White, MPH, Executive Director, MRCT Center.
  • Emina Berbic, Program Manager, MRCT Center

Project Resources

Promoting Global Clinical Research in Children – A Project Overview

We are delighted to announce the launch of an interactive webpage dedicated to our Promoting Global Clinical Research in Children project. With our workgroup activities now complete, we are focused on presenting our findings and actively engaging in international projects. We offer a comprehensive suite of resources tailored for stakeholders who are directly involved or have an interest in pediatric clinical research.

Please visit this interactive summary page or the Promoting Global Clinical Research in Children project page for tools, publications, and materials supporting pediatric clinical research worldwide.