CTSA Working Group Unveils Accelerated Clinical Trial Agreement

A persistent problem facing the clinical research enterprise is the difficulty of negotiating the terms of contracts under which clinical trials will be performed at individual clinical research sites. For many research centers, the process is complex and protracted, and can often contribute to substantial delay in study start-up.

However, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Master Contracts Working Group has recently developed a possible solution—the Accelerated Clinical Trial Agreement, or ACTA. The ACTA provides a standardized template for contracts between site investigators and study sponsors, one with the potential to expedite contracting and make the start-up process for clinical trials more efficient.

The ACTA, which has already been adopted by more than 50 research centers and individual is available, along with the Accelerated Confidential Disclosure Agreement (ACDA), from the CTSA’s Accelerated Research Agreements Initiative.

For further reading:

"Use Accelerated Clinical Trial Agreement (ACTA) to Expedite Study Start-Up" (Duke Translational Medicine Institute)

Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative - Site Metrics Project Summary

Cycle time metrics for multisite clinical trials in the United States