LONDON (UK) – Quanticate, a data-focused clinical research organisation (CRO), has announced that it is partnering with Lancaster University to sponsor a STOR-i PhD project.

The partnership will see Quanticate support research into optimizing clinical trial design for rare disease and the role of response-adaptive randomisation. STOR-i was established in 2010 as an Engineering and Physical Sciences Resaearch Council EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training and has developed an international reputation for the quality of its research.

Karen Ooms, executive vice president for corporate planning and resourcing at Quanticate, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together the knowledge and skills of the statistics department at Lancaster University with the industrial experience of a wide range of real and meaningful problems from Quanticate.

“We have been fortunate to support many companies in their rare disease programmes by providing clinical data management, biostatistics, programming, statistical consultancy and medical writing services.

“This partnership will expands on our expertise in rare diseases and enables us to further our knowledge in response-adaptive trial design.”

Response-adaptive trials differ from the traditional randomised approach as subjects are allocated to treatments on the basis of responses observed in the trial. Previous research and trials have suggested that response-adaptice design may have ethical benefits when applied to trials for rare diseases, without significantly compromising the power of the trial. This research seeks to extend previous work by considering the implications of delayed feedback  and continuous covariates on trial design and outcomes.