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Major milestone reached for Clinical Trials Accelerator Platform
The Clinical Trials Accelerator Platform (CTAP), which launched in 2017, is a UK-wide initiative that brings people with CF together with clinicians and researchers holding clinical trials.
CTAP aims to create more opportunities for people with CF to gain early access to transformative new therapies, and to accelerate the development of new treatments.
Why this is such an important milestone
Despite the recent challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been fantastic to see continued and renewed engagement in CF research, not only from people with CF and their families, but also from clinical and research teams from CF centres all over the UK.
Since the programme launched five years ago, we’ve seen a total of 535 babies and children and 512 adults have taken part in a CTAP-supported study – but over the last year, participation has really ramped up, with over 320 people enrolled in the last 12 months alone!
This burst of activity could be due to the growing pipeline of trials opening in the UK, coupled with potentially an increased awareness of clinical trials following the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Supporting access to trials for the CF community
Through our network of 27 Trials Accelerator centres – which covers almost 90% of the UK CF population – along with our national team of 25 dedicated CF trial coordinators and research nurses, we have been able to support the setup and recruitment of participants to 41 different CF clinical trials so far.
These include a number of pivotal CFTR modulator therapy trials, CF Registry trials such as CF START and CF STORM, COVID-19 studies including CAR-CF, and wider research initiatives such as the Cystic Fibrosis Project within NIHR BioResource - Rare Diseases.
The Trials Accelerator has also created a specialist network of centres and coordinators for early phase clinical trials. Early phase clinical trials can be more resource-intensive to run, as they are the first time that new medicines are being researched in people with CF. We hope that this will help make new ground-breaking medicines, such as genetic therapies, available as early as possible to the UK CF community.
A huge thank you to all participants
We would like to sincerely thank all the patients, parents and families who have taken part in research and who have enabled the success of so many important clinical trials relevant to CF.
Clinical trials are a fundamental aspect of bringing new treatments to people who need them, and they rely on our dedicated trial participants to allow investigators to come to meaningful conclusions about the safety and effectiveness of new treatments. This, in turn, drives forward the roll-out of new therapies for wider use by the CF community.
How can I or my loved one take part in a clinical trial?
A great way to find information on what clinical trials are currently running (or will be opening soon) is via our CF Trials Tracker, where you can find information such as who can take part and which CF centres are participating in the study.
You can also speak to your CF clinical team about taking part in a clinical trial, or contact one of our CF Trial Coordinators.
For more information about how you can get involved in CF clinical trials, click here.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic condition which causes sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive system. It affects more than 10,800 people in the UK. One in 25 of us carries the faulty gene that causes it, usually without knowing.
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