In September 2020 a broad cross-disciplinary coalition of medical societies and patient advocates issued the joint statement ‘Reducing bureaucracy in clinical trials: now is the time!’

The statement calls for urgent action to make clinical trials less bureaucratic and more patient-centered, efficient and cheaper. At stake are the quality of clinical trials, access to innovative treatments and, crucially, patient safety.

The Coalition calls on regulators, policymakers, sponsors, ethics committees and other stakeholders to collaborate to make sure regulatory guidelines, safety reporting requirements and informed consent procedures do not harm what they are meant to protect: clinical trial quality and patient safety.