Key Considerations When Running a Cross-Species Comparative Trial
By Tommy Jackson on March 11, 2021

Did you know 90% of investigational products don’t make it to approval? Why? Because of poor efficacy.
One way to mitigate the risk of failure before investing too much is to perform cross-species comparative studies, an emerging approach in clinical research.
Before you roll your eyes, look at some of the benefits to including companion animal studies in your development plans include:
- Spontaneous diseases in pets often share many of the same clinical and molecular features as human conditions
- Companion animals have a much shorter lifespan than humans & progress faster through disease stages
- Dogs have a higher incidence of some diseases that are rare in humans
- Veterinary medicine often lacks standard of care treatments and can potentially serve as an unforeseen market
When considering cross-species comparative studies, you’ll want to find a platform that can adapt to the unique challenges of animal health research. Some of these challenges include:
- The ability to add subjects by group or pen rather than by individual
- Randomization by household (e.g. treatments put in food shared among all animals in a household)
- In farm animal research, the lack of wifi connection may be an issue
- Time delays in transferring lab data from animal LIMS systems into the EDC
Prelude’s eClinical platform has been the leading database in animal health trials for 15 years. Animal health research capabilities are ingrained in the fabric of the eClinical database, which has a solution for each of the challenges mentioned above and more. Additionally, Prelude has partnerships with all of the leading animal health CROs and consultants and we can support your team in navigating the exciting space of animal health research.