BIG and Industry
Today, the majority of clinical trials are funded by the pharmaceutical industry to test the effectiveness of new drugs. Some of these trials are run together with BIG, following BIG’s strict principles of research conduct.
However, BIG’s investigators also initiate and run clinical trials and programmes without industry partners, often to find answers to questions that have no inherent commercial interest but for which answers could lead to significant improvements for patients and society as a whole:
- How can drugs best be combined or sequenced with others to optimise patient treatment?
- Can expensive treatments be given for shorter durations without having an impact on patient outcome?
- Can some treatments be omitted altogether for certain patients without increasing the risk of breast cancer relapse?
- Are there better ways to use “old” or “generic” drugs?
BIG’s Principles of Research Conduct aim to eliminate bias from the research process and to maintain integrity vis-à-vis patients. This is the case both when BIG partners with pharmaceutical companies and when BIG works alone.
