Cardinal Health granted FDA funding for RWE study

Pharma distribution heavyweight Cardinal Health has been awarded a $750,000 contract by FDA to implement an 18-month real-world evidence (RWE) study as part of the agency’s efforts to advance the applicability of RWE in regulatory decision-making.

The funding will go toward the project “Assessment of a Novel Methodology for Endpoints Assessing Response to Lymphoma Treatment in Real-World Studies,” and will assess the precision of real-world data (RWD) for lymphoma tumor response, compared to blinded independent central review, which is considered to be the “gold standard” in randomized clinical trials. Cardinal Health will work alongside the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence to evaluate tumor response in the clinical care setting.

“The utilization of real-world evidence can ultimately lead to improving the patient experience by providing quicker access to safer therapies, but only if the potential is fully realized by bridging the measures used in clinical trials to those observed in real-world patients,” says Eli Phillips, Jr., PharmD, JD, vice president of regulatory sciences and insights & engagement, Cardinal Health. “I’m proud that Cardinal Health’s commitment to advancing patient care through the use of real-world evidence for regulatory objectives has been recognized by the FDA with this award to further our research.”