# A single harmonised pharmacy process to improve clinical trial set-up times

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified pharmacy process to speed up clinical trial setup in the UK, aiming to improve global rankings.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is a harmonised pharmacy review process for multicentre clinical trials in Greater Manchester.

## Key findings

- A harmonised pharmacy review process could expedite trial set-up times in pharmacy sites.
- The process may standardise pharmacy reviews and reduce delays in clinical trial delivery.

## Abstract

The UK has fallen from fourth to 10th place in the global ranking for clinical trial activities in the past 6 years. Due to the limited capacity of the clinical trial pharmacy workforce and delays in providing pharmacy approvals, pharmacy has been identified as one of the constraining services that delays the set-up and delivery of clinical trials. To tackle this problem, we developed a single pharmacy review process for multicentre trials across Greater Manchester (GM) and tested its feasibility and implementation in our region. A survey completed by each GM Trust suggests that this harmonised pharmacy review process for multicentre studies would expedite trial set-up time at each pharmacy site and standardise the pharmacy review process in GM. We therefore believe that this harmonised review process could potentially reduce pharmacy set-up time and reposition the UK in the global market for clinical trials.