On May 8, 2023 Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRTX), a commercial stage biotechnology company, and Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), one of the world’s leading oncology research organizations conducting community-based clinical trials, reported a strategic partnership aimed at increasing diversity in clinical study recruitment practices (Press release, Mirati, MAY 8, 2023, View Source [SID1234631189]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
According to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper), nearly 85 percent of patients living with cancer are treated in community centers1. Ensuring equitable access to and participation in clinical studies requires improved awareness and targeted efforts to remove systemic barriers that may limit access to clinical studies for underrepresented patient groups.
As part of this partnership, Mirati and SCRI will implement practices and programs focused on removing obstacles to clinical study participation, including expanding physician and patient education and increasing access to community-based clinical trials. Initiatives will be focused on reducing complexities associated with activating clinical trials thereby enabling a greater number of community practices to participate in research studies.
"The opportunity to partner with SCRI enables Mirati to advance diversity in our clinical studies, which is a key pillar of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. We are excited about the opportunity to leverage the expertise and scale of SCRI as we collaborate on a range of initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes for a broad range of patients." said Alan Sandler, M.D., chief medical officer, Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. "By focusing on community-based sites, we can better understand the health needs of patients living with cancer and provide more tailored, patient-centered care. This partnership will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges patients face to enable us to better design our clinical studies to be representative of all patient communities."
SCRI’s research network brings together more than 1,300 physicians who are actively accruing patients to clinical trials at more than 250 locations in 24 states across the U.S. Mirati will work directly with Development Innovations, SCRI’s full-service, oncology-focused contract research organization (CRO), to execute the collaboration initiatives across the SCRI network. Through SCRI’s Personalized Medicine Program, the partnership will utilize robust clinical trial matching data to better understand barriers to trial participation and ultimately design protocols to address challenges.
"SCRI is uniquely positioned to advance diversification strategies given our national reach, physician expertise and personalized medicine capabilities," said Howard A. "Skip" Burris, III, MD, president, SCRI. "Through our collaboration with Mirati, we can advance our goals to design and deliver clinical trials that can be accessed by more patient populations and accelerate drug development."