On the back of a difficult few months for the country and economy, Australia is already showing signs of recovery from the perspective of studies on clinical therapeutics. While below 2019’s H1 total of 440 studies hosted in Australia, over 360 are expected to have commenced in the same period this year.
Trial tracking from GlobalData shows that Australia has returned to the monthly count of study initiations of January, before most Sites, CROs and Sponsors were aware of what was to come.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided several core challenges to conducting studies around the world. Enrolling patients to studies (even for vaccines) has been and remains a hard task in areas like the UK and Europe. Patient safety in clinical settings and allocation of research staff have also slowed progress.
While this has promoted improvements in the use of telemedicine and flexibility with assessment location and visit timelines, regions that have recovered quicker from the pandemic now represent great opportunities for conducting studies.
The timing of the financial year and the impact of global markets on foreign investment into Australian healthcare will temper the recovery, but the early signs are promising.
