VirTrial to help BetterLife Pharma in launching COVID-19 clinical trials

VirTrial, a US bioscience technology company, has been selected by Canadian biotech company BetterLife Pharma as its telehealth platform provider of choice for launching COVID-19 clinical trials.

The partnership will help BetterLife Pharma to carry out remote patient monitoring for its upcoming COVID-19 clinical trials in Australia for evaluating the efficacy of its interferon alpha 2b formulation AP-003.

VirTrial said that the decision of the Canadian biotech company to move ahead with it was driven by its platform’s ability to satisfy three key selection criteria. These include the capability to work with their choice of clinical sites, prioritize safety for patients and site staff by mitigating risks of COVID-19, and enabling an open consultation for patient qualification and consent.

A primary feature of the VirTrial platform that will be used during the study is virtual visits – a combination of secure video, audio, chat and messaging, which can be used on any device. Incorporating virtual visits facilitates BetterLife to evaluate, qualify and routinely monitor both patients and research sites for studies without physical travel.

Dr. Ahmad Doroudian – CEO of BetterLife Pharma said: “Considering the constantly changing restrictions on travel due to COVID-19, we felt that this was the best option for us to proceed without delay with our patient trials.

“We feel that partnering with an innovative company like VirTrial will assist us in virtually monitoring patients who may or may not be able to travel to our clinical sites owing to self-isolation at home.”

VirTrial claims that unlike other clinical trial vendors that started as technology firms, it has a strong team of clinical research experts and knowledgeable tech entrepreneurs working together to lead it towards giving people remote access to clinical research sites.

Mark Hanley – CEO of VirTrial said: “The sites are excited about the opportunity to be part of the solution for a true and present need and appreciate the benefit of being able to conduct the study via a fully remote DCT to eliminate any risk to employees.”