FDA and NIH Release Final Template for Clinical Trial Protocols

Posted on May 2, 2017 by FDA Voice

By: Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D.

A little more than a year ago, FDA and NIH announced the availability of a draft template for investigators to use when organizing clinical trial protocols, which are essentially roadmaps for conducting a clinical trial.

Today, we are excited to announce that the NIH-FDA Joint Leadership Council has issued a final version of the template, a development which is likely to contribute important efficiencies to the process of protocol development, saving medical product development time and money.

The final version is intended for clinical investigators who are writing protocols for phase 2 and phase 3 NIH-funded studies requiring investigational new drug or investigational device exemption applications, but could also be helpful to other investigators conducting studies of medical products that are not regulated by FDA. It provides both instructional and sample text and reflects input from the public, consisting of nearly 200 comments from over 60 individuals. Importantly, it also has been harmonized with a separate protocol template that was recently developed by the private sector organization, Transcelerate Biopharma, for industry-sponsored research.

Clinical trial protocols are critical components of any medical product development program, describing trial objectives, trial design, methodology, statistical considerations, and trial organization.

Having a standard protocol format will facilitate review of protocols by regulators and others (e.g., institutional review boards). We believe that the template will help investigators prepare protocols that are consistent and well organized, contain all the information necessary for the clinical trial to be properly reviewed, and follow the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) E6 Good Clinical Practice guidelines. By clarifying expectations, the template will contribute important time and money-saving efficiencies.

Guidance is available from FDA on the content that should be included in a protocol to help ensure human subject protection and high data quality, but the guidance does not describe a standardized format for presenting this information. Placing relevant information in a standardized location in a clinical trial protocol can expedite the development and review of protocols thus enabling a quicker start of a clinical trial, potentially leading to more timely completion of studies and getting important new treatments to patients more quickly. What’s more, with the increased complexity of clinical development, such as use of combinations of different medical products, it is more important than ever that investigators understand protocol development expectations and capture important components right from the start.

NIH, which supports and conducts biomedical research, and FDA, which evaluates the safety and effectiveness of medical products and depends on high-quality research to inform its decisions, agreed that developing a protocol template would be an excellent opportunity to help improve the design of clinical trials. Our agencies believe that the availability of this template and accompanying instructional information will be very useful to investigators in creating well-organized, high-quality protocols — a benefit to everyone involved in medical product development.

Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research