PhUSE EU Connect 2018 took place in Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, 4th - 7th November and brought together a range of experts to tackle the most pressing issues facing statistical programmers today. The agenda was superb with 143 presentations in 16 different streams and nearly 30 posters. This year’s event theme ‘Future Forward’ did not disappoint and there were some very...

Topics: adaptive designs, data science, careers, R programming, Statistical Programming, PhUSE, SDTM, machine learning, CDISC, FDA

One of my wife’s favorite TV shows is ‘Quattro Ristoranti’ (Four Restaurants). In each episode of the show, 4 restaurants of the same style are assessed and the one getting the best evaluation wins the prize. One of the first things the TV presenter Alessandro Borghese, a famous Italian chef, does while visiting the restaurant is to assess (of course!) the kitchen and how much the kitchen and...

Topics: CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, PhUSE, Statistical Programming, FDA

 

On August 29th 2018, the FDA announced (1) that it would be establishing a Complex Innovative Trial Design (CID) Pilot Meeting Program. This follows the release earlier in August of a draft guidance (2) to help advance effective and innovative clinical trial designs early in drug development that can expedite new cancer therapies.

Topics: biostatistics, adaptive trials, adaptive sample size re-estimation, Seamless designs, FDA, Oncology

PhUSE 2017 took place in Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh, 8th - 11th October, and brought together a range of experts to tackle the most pressing issues facing statistical programmers today.  We found this year's event informative and well attended. In this blog we share some highlights from the sessions and posters the Cytel team attended.  We will share Cytel's own contributions in a...

Topics: biostatistics, Interim Analyses, Statistical Programming, R programming, clinical trials, FDA, CDISC

In this blog, we share the second part of our interview with Bob Beckman, about a design concept for a confirmatory basket trial. Beckman is Professor of Oncology and of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Biomathematics at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Innovation Center of Biomedical Informatics, Georgetown University Medical Center. The first part of the interview, which...

Topics: Clinical Data, adaptive designs, FDA, basket trials, Oncology

The ASA Biopharmaceutical Section Regulatory-Industry Statistics Workshop is sponsored by the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section in cooperation with the FDA Statistical Association. Each year 800 statistical practitioners come together to absorb new information on statistical practices in all areas regulated by the FDA.

Cytel was honored to be involved in the workshop program, and our subject...

Topics: Clinical Data, Clinical Research Services, Adaptive Clinical Trials, adaptive designs, Sample Size, adaptive sample size re-estimation, Bayesian, Regulation, FDA, Promising Zone

 

Once upon a time Hansel and Gretel laid a trail of breadcrumbs which they followed to find their way back home.  Their story can be an allegory for the concept of traceability in clinical data where we need to  lay a clear path to ensure that the results we have created can be reproduced. This blog looks at some aspects of a presentation Lost in Traceability  by Angelo Tinazzi at the CDISC...

Topics: Clinical Research Services, Statistical Programming, FDA, Clinical Data, CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, EMA, PMDA, Biometrics

Last week was the CDISC EU Interchange conference in Vienna, a key event on the calendar for Cytel’s statistical programming subject matter experts . Angelo Tinazzi, Director, Statistical Programming, Clinical Data Standards and Clinical Data Submission at Cytel co-chaired the sessions on Foundational Standards and Standards Governance alongside Astrazeneca’s Daniel Graham, and delivered a...

Topics: Clinical Research Services, Statistical Programming, FDA, Clinical Data, CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, EMA, PMDA, Biometrics

 

We continue our series of blogs covering the expert presentations from the EAST User Group Meeting. Consultant Claire Watkins of Clarostat provided a different statistical focus, moving the discussion to a later point in the product lifecycle and the area of Health Technology Assessment.  Her presentation, which tackled the topic of Adjusting Overall Survival for Treatment switch, shared the...

Topics: Oncology, FDA, NICE, HTA, health economics, treatment switch

Imagine that it’s been three years since the completion of a trial, and that suddenly a regulatory body calls into question the findings:

• Was a particular trial site operating properly?
• Can you clarify an aspect of the results? 
• Why did you make a particular decision at an interim look?

Suddenly, your somewhat old data needs to...

Topics: Data Management, Trial Quality, Trial Monitoring, FDA, ACES

 

The FDA requires sponsors of new antidiabetic drugs to conduct cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOTs). CVOTs demonstrate that new therapies do not place unacceptable cardiovascular risk on patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes. The average CVOT requires about 5000 patients and takes an average of 5 years to complete. However, a recent white paper by the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium...

Topics: Cyrus Mehta, Promising Zone, Trial Design, FDA, Interim Analyses, Cardiovascular, Adaptive Clinical Trials

 

The FDA’s Tatiana Prowell (Breast Cancer Scientific Lead in the Office of Hematology  & Oncology Products) recently gave an interview to the Nature Review Drug Discovery, in which she discusses the top three pitfalls faced by drug developers in oncology. Issues which Prowell cite include: selection of appropriate dosage, trial designs without...

Topics: Oncology, East, Regulation, FDA, East PREDICT, Predictive Enrichment, Interim Analyses, Prediction