Extraneous clinical data collection costs drug developers $4-$6 billion a year, says Tufts CSDD

One out of every five procedures performed during later stage clinical trials collects extraneous data and costs drug developers more than $1 million per trial, a newly completed study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development has found.

According to Tufts CSDD, 18% of a typical clinical trial budget, or $1.1 million, is spent on direct costs to administer procedures for supplementary secondary, tertiary, and exploratory endpoints.

"The impetus to collect these data is strong, and until now there has been no systematic assessment of this practice," said Ken Getz, assistant professor at Tufts CSDD, adding: "We believe our findings offer a framework that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can use to streamline protocol designs, improve clinical research performance, and reduce development costs."