Patient-Focused Drug Development Grant Program Awards - Drug Information Update

Patient-Focused Drug Development Grant Program Awards

As part of Patient Focused Drug Development (PFDD) efforts, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces three new grant awards to support the development of publicly available core set(s) of Clinical Outcome Assessments (COAs) and their related endpoints for specific disease indications ( RFA-FD-19-006). These awards will provide avenues to advance the use of patient input as an important part of drug development that can foster innovation and the availability of safe and effective drugs.

Patient input can help inform the therapeutic context for regulatory review. Patient input also can inform the selection of clinical outcomes, ensure the appropriateness of instruments used to collect trial data, and help ensure that investigations of the effect of treatments are assessing outcomes that are meaningful to patients. If methodologically-sound data collection tools are developed and used within clinical trials of an investigational therapy, patient input can provide a direct source of evidence regarding the benefits and risks of a drug.

The awards are:

• Migraine Clinical Outcome Assessment System (MiCOAS) – This project will develop and standardize a core set of endpoints and related COAs for use across migraine clinical trials.  The team of investigators, led by R.J. Wirth, Ph.D., M.A., at Vector Psychometric Group and Richard Lipton M.D., at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, will conduct patient-centered qualitative research to further inform COA development and ensure the patient experience is captured and that endpoints address symptoms that are most important to patients suffering from migraines.  The investigators expect that their work will advance the development and approval of migraine treatments.
• Clinical Outcome Assessments for Acute Pain Therapeutics in Infants and Young Children (COA APTIC) – This project, led by Kanecia Zimmerman M.D., M.P.H., and Bryce Reeve Ph.D., M.A., at Duke University, will identify COAs and endpoints for use when developing acute pain therapeutics in infants and young children, primarily those 0-2 years.  The team will engage with patients, caregivers and clinicians to identify meaningful outcomes for acute pain clinical trials and will further research potential clinician-, observer-, and patient-reported COAs in a prospective trial among infants and young children.  The investigators expect that their work will facilitate the development of treatments that provide safe and effective pain management in infants and young children.
• Northwestern University Clinical Outcome Assessment Team (NUCOAT) – This project will develop and validate COAs with applicability across a range of chronic conditions, including rare diseases that assess physical function using patient-reported and performance outcomes.  The team of investigators, led by David Cella Ph.D., M.A., at Northwestern University, will research a full range of physical function severity.  The investigators expect their work to result in core physical function outcome sets that measure the full range of physical function severity with potential generalizability across conditions.

Find additional information at: CDER Pilot Grant Program: Standard Core Clinical Outcome Assessments (COAs) and their Related Endpoints.