Clinical trial design establishes the framework upon which the clinical trial process will be conducted, and sets the objectives of the trial. The application for marketing approval, submitted to the regulatory authorities, will provide clinical data reflecting the trial design. Since trial design impacts the whole drug development process and lifecycle, particular care and due diligence is essential. This short course provides an overview of the main types of study design.
A clinical trial, particularly a late-phase commercial study, is a major project requiring collaboration between the sponsor and staff or contractor, on the one hand, and the clinical investigator(s) and other healthcare professionals on the other. Good communication among all parties is essential. In this short course we introduce the major roles in a typical clinical research project and outline their duties.
Comprehensive documentation of procedures, formulas, work instructions, and specifications, and thorough recording of batch data, are fundamental requirements of GMP. In this short course we explain why documentation is so important, identify different types of document required, and set out some simple rules for recording and correcting data.