Drug Evaluation Committee 2016-30 Resumption of Clinical Trial after Submission of End of Clinical Trial Report
Related classification: Clinical Trial Review Committee
Date of first publication: October 2016
Question
The Investigator Site has completed the enrollment and handling of subjects in the Phase I trial being conducted at Hospital A. The trial as a whole has achieved its target number of subjects. Since the trial as a whole has achieved its target number of subjects and there will be no new recruitment in the future, the investigator prepared a report on the termination of the trial and reported it to the Chairperson of the Investigator Site with a report on the termination (suspension or discontinuation) of the trial, which was notified to the Investigator Site's Chairperson and the sponsor.
However, the sponsor is planning to revise the study protocol and has contacted us to ask us to conduct the study again with the establishment of a new cohort.
We would like to know if there is any problem in resuming the study for which we have submitted a termination report. If so, we would appreciate it if you could let us know if the following method would be acceptable.
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(1)The investigator and sponsor agree in writing to the withdrawal of the study termination report.
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(2)The investigator submits a document to the head of the Investigator Site, including withdrawal of the clinical trial termination report.
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(3)The Investigator Site Chairperson notifies the Clinical Trial Review Committee, and the Clinical Trial Review Committee deliberates on the appropriateness of continuation.
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(4)After approval by the Investigational Review Committee, the clinical trial is resumed.
JPMA's Opinion
Although the GCP does not stipulate how to handle the case in question, we believe that there should be no problem in handling the case as you suggest. Alternatively, you could start the procedure with another request for a clinical trial. Regardless of the method, we think it is important to record the circumstances and reasons for restarting a clinical trial that has been terminated.
In your question, you mention "documents such as withdrawal of the clinical trial termination report," but from the perspective of preserving the history, it is necessary to keep the already submitted clinical trial termination report without discarding it.