In light of the global health emergency created by the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers were able to reduce the normal time to arrive at a vaccine by years. was four years when the vaccine for the mumps virus was developed in the 1960s. Previously, the fastest a vaccine had been developed in the U.S. When faced with the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus, pharmaceutical companies and governments collaborated to accelerate the clinical research process in order to develop a vaccine that would work against COVID-19. In addition, many investigators, sub-investigators, and research staff had to shift focus to COVID related support instead of working on clinical research efforts.īeyond the disruption to existing clinical research studies, however, COVID-19 has had other impacts on the clinical research industry that could have a potentially positive impact on how clinical research is conducted in the future.ĬOVID-19 Resulted in an Acceleration of the Clinical Research Process

Enrollment in clinical trials dropped dramatically during the early stages of the pandemic as potential participants were reluctant to make trips to hospitals or other research sites. The disruptions ranged from stopping ongoing trials, pausing recruitment of ongoing trials and pausing the development of new clinical study sites. In 2020, over 79% of ongoing clinical trials were disrupted in one way or another by COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic created massive disruption within the world of clinical research. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical research industry has been profound and in some respects may prove to be an inflection point for the Life Sciences industry. One of the best and most recent examples of the importance of clinical research is the development of vaccines for the COVID-19 virus which to date has taken the lives of over 5 million people across the globe since early 2020. Clinical research is the underlying process that results in the development of ground breaking new drugs and treatments that cure or treat diseases that improve all of our lives. Clinical research is one of the foundations of the Life Sciences industry as it involves the scientific investigation and treatment of diseases and other medical conditions in order to improve medical knowledge related to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of such diseases and medical conditions.

Digital techniques volume 6