Mayo Clinic taps into blockchain technology for clinical trial design

On Thursday, Dutch blockchain startup Triall announced that it partnered with American non-profit medical center Mayo Clinic to optimize clinical trial design and management of study data. Starting this September, Triall's eClinical platform will support a 2-year multi-center pulmonary arterial hypertension clinical trial that includes 10 research sites and more than 500+ patients across the U.S. 

The software will support activities such as data capture, document management, study monitoring, and consent. As told by Triall, the purpose of the collaboration is to demonstrate an immutable public ledger audit trail through its blockchain technology for boosting clinical trial integrity. Investigators, regulators, and stakeholders, can then review and assess such trial-related data with trust, knowing that no one can modify the records.

In the U.S., the median cost of a clinical trial investigating new drugs or therapies is estimated at $19 million. Approval rates for new chemical entities and biologics typically hover between 10% to 20% from the preclinical phase to finish and can often take years of investigation.

Launched in 2018, Triall has commercialized its first blockchain product, Verial eTMF. It enables researchers to generate verifiable proofs of the authenticity of clinical trial documents, such as patient diagnosis data. In addition, the firm is developing APIs through eClinical that enable existing third-party clinical trial software providers to connect to Triall’s blockchain infrastructure. The native TRL token is designed for ecosystem utility, such as for payment of compensation to clinical trial participants. If successful, Triall plans to further collaborate with Mayo Clinic in the realm of decentralized medical research.