Real-world Evidence Generation Research Articles

PNS226 A CONSOLIDATED FRAMEWORK FOR COLLABORATION IN RWE GENERATION FOR A MEDICAL PRODUCT

Real-world evidence (RWE) generation for medical products is needed for regulatory and reimbursement decision-making, market access, and to aid clinician and patient understanding of how a product fits into the choices available for treating disease. Within pharmaceutical and medical device companies, this evidence generation is often housed in multiple business units which may be siloed or placed in competition. We have noticed that frameworks utilized to plan and assess evidence for regulatory and reimbursement needs have overlaps which can be leveraged to better utilize organization-wide resources by encouraging collaboration. We developed an integrated framework for RWE generation through comparing and contrasting development of a value strategy for reimbursement with use of a structured benefit-risk assessment (sBRA) for regulatory decision-making. Both value strategy and sBRA include clarification of the disease landscape, the specific need addressed by the product (i.e., indication), description of the value messages (i.e., benefits) for the product, and identification of data. Additionally, the value strategy can provide a structured approach to identify data gaps and prioritize data collection to address those gaps – both of which are needed for regulatory risk management documents. Meanwhile, the sBRA can provide a structure to arrive at consensus language on known risks and the benefit-risk balance. The prioritization of timing and sequence of new studies, which is part of the value strategy, can be leveraged to meet the needs of those who are addressing both regulatory and reimbursement stakeholder requirements. Sharing RWE generation planning across a consolidated framework allows for the possibility of utilizing one study to meet multiple business unit needs. It also allows for alignment of messaging around RWE across a company. We recommend testing and codification of this consolidated framework within companies looking to strengthen their RWE pipeline.

Tools and Methods for Real-World Evidence Generation: Pragmatic Trials, Electronic Consent, and Data Linkages.

Real-world evidence requires use of new tools and methods to support efficient evidence generation. Among those tools are pragmatic trials, utilization of central/single institutional review board and electronic consent, and data linkages between diverse types of data sources (eg, a trial or registry to administrative claims or electronic medical record data). This article reviews these topics in the context of describing several exemplar use cases specific to rheumatology and provides perspective regarding both the promise and potential pitfalls in using these tools and approaches.

Real world eligibility for cabozantinib (C), regorafenib (Reg), and ramucirumab (Ram) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after sorafenib (S).

422 Background: The CELESTIAL, RESORCE, and REACH-2 trials showed survival benefit of C, Reg, and Ram, respectively, when given after S to HCC patients. However, strict eligibility criteria (SEC) may limit generalizability. In clinical practice, modified eligibility criteria (MEC) may be used to offer treatments to select patients with slightly worse performance status (ECOG 2) or limited liver dysfunction (Child-Pugh (CP) B7). This study evaluated which patients in the real world would be eligible for these new treatments using SEC and MEC, and their prognostic impact. Methods: HCC patients who received S between 01/2008-06/2017 in British Columbia, Alberta, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Sunnybrook Cancer Centre in Canada were included. Clinical, pathologic, laboratory and outcome data were collected. Patients were classified as eligible or ineligible based on available CELESTIAL, RESORCE, REACH-2 clinical trial SEC or MEC. Median overall survival (mOS) for these groups was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: A total of 730 patients were identified. Using SEC, only 13.1% of patients would be eligible for C, Reg, or Ram (table). Expanding eligibility to include patients who meet MEC increased the proportion of eligible patients to 31.7%. Patients who met SEC had longer mOS compared to those who were ineligible. The most common reasons for not meeting SEC across all 3 trials were ECOG ≥ 2 (61.7%) and CP ≥ B (63.9%). Higher ineligibility for Reg or Ram was likely driven by strict trial-specific criteria, with 28.0% of patients ineligible for Reg due to S intolerance and 58.9% ineligible for Ram due to AFP < 400. Conclusions: Only a small proportion of real-world HCC patients would be eligible for C, Reg, or Ram based on SEC. More than twice as many patients would likely receive treatment if MEC were applied. If MEC are adopted, ongoing real-world evidence generation will be important to evaluate outcomes in these unstudied patient groups. [Table: see text]

Use of real-world evidence for healthcare decision-making in the Middle East: practical considerations and future directions

ABSTRACT Introduction: Real-world evidence (RWE) is increasingly being used in coverage, reimbursement and formulary decisions for medicines globally. Areas covered: The Middle East (ME) region is significantly behind in generating and using RWE in health policy decisions due to several factors that shaped the health sector over the past few decades. The trend, however, is changing due to several factors that are shaping the future of the healthcare industry in the region. Among other factors, rising healthcare cost, changing population and disease demographics, increased focus on the quality of healthcare, digitization of medical data, increased demand for local clinical and economic data, and overall greater influence of global trends in the healthcare industry. For the region to realize the benefit of RWE in healthcare decisions, it needs to overcome several challenges including embracing the value that RWE brings to healthcare decisions, building trust between stakeholders, establishing reliability and validity of databases used to generate RWE, enhancing technical capabilities, investing in local data generation, and conducting high-quality RWE studies while maintaining patients’ confidentiality. Expert commentary: We believe that the next decade will witness significant increase in RWE generation in the region, and will play a key role in driving efficiency in healthcare delivery.

Leaping Together Toward Sustainable, Patient-Centered Innovation: The Value of a Multistakeholder Safe Haven for Accelerating System Change.

Leaping Together Toward Sustainable, Patient-Centered Innovation: The Value of a Multistakeholder Safe Haven for Accelerating System Change.

Real world evidence (RWE) - a disruptive innovation or the quiet evolution of medical evidence generation?

Stakeholders in healthcare are increasingly turning to real world evidence (RWE) to inform their decisions, alongside evidence from randomized controlled trials. RWE is generated by analysing data gathered from routine clinical practice, and can be used across the product lifecycle, providing insights into areas including disease epidemiology, treatment effectiveness and safety, and health economic value and impact. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have stated their ambition for greater use of RWE to support applications for new indications, and are now consulting with their stakeholders to formalize standards and expected methods for generating RWE. Pharmaceutical companies are responding to the increasing demands for RWE by developing standards and processes for each stage of the evidence generation pathway. Some conventions are already in place for assuring quality, whereas other processes are specific to the research question and data sources available. As evidence generation increasingly becomes a core role of medical affairs divisions in large pharmaceutical companies, standards of rigour will continue to evolve and improve. Senior pharmaceutical leaders can drive this change by making RWE a core element of their corporate strategy, providing top-level direction on how their respective companies should approach RWE for maximum quality. Here, we describe the current and future areas of RWE application within the pharmaceutical industry, necessary access to data to generate RWE, and the challenges in communicating RWE. Supporting and building on viewpoints from industry and publicly funded research, our perspective is that at each stage of RWE generation, quality will be critical to the impact that RWE has on healthcare decision-makers; not only where RWE is an established and evolving tool, but also in new areas that have the potential to disrupt and to improve drug development pathways.

Real world evidence (RWE) – a disruptive innovation or the quiet evolution of medical evidence generation?

Stakeholders in healthcare are increasingly turning to real world evidence (RWE) to inform their decisions, alongside evidence from randomized controlled trials. RWE is generated by analysing data gathered from routine clinical practice, and can be used across the product lifecycle, providing insights into areas including disease epidemiology, treatment effectiveness and safety, and health economic value and impact. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have stated their ambition for greater use of RWE to support applications for new indications, and are now consulting with their stakeholders to formalize standards and expected methods for generating RWE. Pharmaceutical companies are responding to the increasing demands for RWE by developing standards and processes for each stage of the evidence generation pathway. Some conventions are already in place for assuring quality, whereas other processes are specific to the research question and data sources available. As evidence generation increasingly becomes a core role of medical affairs divisions in large pharmaceutical companies, standards of rigour will continue to evolve and improve. Senior pharmaceutical leaders can drive this change by making RWE a core element of their corporate strategy, providing top-level direction on how their respective companies should approach RWE for maximum quality. Here, we describe the current and future areas of RWE application within the pharmaceutical industry, necessary access to data to generate RWE, and the challenges in communicating RWE. Supporting and building on viewpoints from industry and publicly funded research, our perspective is that at each stage of RWE generation, quality will be critical to the impact that RWE has on healthcare decision-makers; not only where RWE is an established and evolving tool, but also in new areas that have the potential to disrupt and to improve drug development pathways.

Real world evidence (RWE) - a disruptive innovation or the quiet evolution of medical evidence generation?

Stakeholders in healthcare are increasingly turning to real world evidence (RWE) to inform their decisions, alongside evidence from randomized controlled trials. RWE is generated by analysing data gathered from routine clinical practice, and can be used across the product lifecycle, providing insights into areas including disease epidemiology, treatment effectiveness and safety, and health economic value and impact. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have stated their ambition for greater use of RWE to support applications for new indications, and are now consulting with their stakeholders to formalize standards and expected methods for generating RWE. Pharmaceutical companies are responding to the increasing demands for RWE by developing standards and processes for each stage of the evidence generation pathway. Some conventions are already in place for assuring quality, whereas other processes are specific to the research question and data sources available. As evidence generation increasingly becomes a core role of medical affairs divisions in large pharmaceutical companies, standards of rigour will continue to evolve and improve. Senior pharmaceutical leaders can drive this change by making RWE a core element of their corporate strategy, providing top-level direction on how their respective companies should approach RWE for maximum quality. Here, we describe the current and future areas of RWE application within the pharmaceutical industry, necessary access to data to generate RWE, and the challenges in communicating RWE. Supporting and building on viewpoints from industry and publicly funded research, our perspective is that at each stage of RWE generation, quality will be critical to the impact that RWE has on healthcare decision-makers; not only where RWE is an established and evolving tool, but also in new areas that have the potential to disrupt and to improve drug development pathways.

PHP158 - Physicians’ Views On Pharma Role In Real World Evidence Generation In Poland

PHP158 - Physicians’ Views On Pharma Role In Real World Evidence Generation In Poland

Challenges in quantifying the patient-reported burden of herpes zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia in the UK: learnings from the Zoster Quality of Life (ZQOL) study

BackgroundAcute presentation of herpes zoster (HZ) and the subsequent development of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) can have a significant impact on patients’ lives. To date, evidence regarding the human and economic burden of HZ and PHN in the UK is limited. To address this knowledge gap a national, multicentre, large-scale real-world study was conducted to inform the scientific community and healthcare decision-makers. This paper outlines difficulties encountered and challenges to conducting real-world studies in the UK, methods used to overcome these hurdles and strategies that can be employed to promote and facilitate the conduct of future studies.FindingsThe Zoster Quality of Life (ZQOL) study is the first UK-wide and largest observational study investigating patient burden associated with HZ and PHN. A total of 383 patients (229 HZ; 154 PHN) over the age of 50 years were recruited from 42 primary and secondary/tertiary care centres. Patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessments of pain, quality of life and treatment satisfaction were completed by all participants and supplemented by clinical information from participating physicians.Key challenges encountered during the conduct of this study can be broadly categorised as follows: 1) identification of centres willing/able to participate in the study: lack of resources and limited research experience were major barriers to recruitment of centres for participation in the study; 2) obtaining local research & development (R&D) approval: lack of clearly defined processes and requirements specific to real-world studies and limited degree of standardisation between R&D departments in approval procedures led to significant variability in submission requirements and lead times for obtaining approval; 3) recruitment of study participants: rates of recruitment were slower than anticipated, meaning it was necessary to extend the study recruitment period and increase the number of participating centres.DiscussionInitiatives designed to promote and facilitate the conduct of research in the UK are important for real-world studies. The ZQOL study shows that opportunities exist for real-word research. However, streamlining the R&D approval process where possible and further incentivising the participation of primary care centres in such studies would help to further facilitate the generation of real-world evidence to inform healthcare decisions.

PRM52 - Feasibility of Use of Medical Transcription Data for Real World Evidence Generation in the United States: A Pilot Study of Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Initiated on Belimumab

PRM52 - Feasibility of Use of Medical Transcription Data for Real World Evidence Generation in the United States: A Pilot Study of Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Initiated on Belimumab