TWIRx: Evolution of Clinical Trials & Community Pharmacy

The role pharmacists play in the community is the same one they should be playing in clinical research. Community-based clinical trials in general can be better for patient care, the pharmacy as a profession, and study sponsors who have long had trouble recruiting enough patients into their studies.   Within the next decade, Gerald Finken, founder and CEO of RxE2 predicts, pharmaceutical companies will no longer be running clinical trials that exclude pharmacy professionals because it will simply be too costly and overly risky.   When shipping drugs directly to patients, as has become customary with decentralized clinical trials (DCTs), many state pharmacy laws specifically stipulate that they follow the practice of pharmacy—which includes patient counseling and patient-specific labeling.   Today we talk about ‘The Evolution of Clinical Trials and the Pharmacist’s Role’