**Industry Perspective on Cancer Trials during the COVID-19 pandemic** [Watch the talk here][1] Dr Bryan Deane, Director of New Medicines and Data at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry described the work that industry is doing to tackle COVID-19 and highlighted key points from the ABPI Clinical Trials Report 2020, published in October 2020. - Improving the speed and efficiency of UK clinical trial capability - Enhancing the clinical trials workforce and their skills - Managing change following Brexit - Improving infrastructure for late phase commercial research - Developing Complex Innovative Design (CID) trials ******The industry response to COVID-19 has included:****** - Helping Government to plan trials of repurposed medications such as antivirals and immune-modulators e.g. RECOVERY platform trial - Developing vaccines and vaccine trials - Researching novel approaches to COVID-19 treatment ****Supporting the development of COVID-19 testing infrastructure:**** - ABPI helped pause research studies to enable frontline staff to help in emergency response and set up national Covid-19 trials (50 have been set up) - As of 9th Sep 2020, only 45% studies are open with 36% recruiting -> a sustainable and strategic plan is needed for research studies (Covid-19 and Non-Covid-19) - Industry is now in discussion with the NIHR and Government about how progress with clinical trials can be sustained through a second wave of COVID-19. This includes the Life Sciences sector Recovery Roadmap **The ABPI Clinical Trials Report 2020 was published October 2020:** - There was a continuing and concerning decline in phase I clinical trial activity in the UK prior to COVID-19 - The UK also appears to be less active in phase III research than other comparable European economies - Oncology remains a strong area in the UK - COVID-19 has highlighted some of the UK’s research strengths but also the resource constraints within the NHS and research system A system that can manage both clinical care and research is required in the UK going forwards to embed research into clinical care for the UK to be among the best places in the world for clinical research [1]: https://osf.io/v78xu/