“For almost a decade, it’s taken nearly eight months on average to get from site identification to study startup completion, when all sites are initiated and ready to enroll patients.”

While it’s often hard to quantify the average time spent on clinical trial activities like study startup, this 2018 quote from Tufts Research author Mary Jo Lamberti showcases the very real problem regarding the time it takes to reach key trial milestones.

In fact, in the seven years since that quote, the clinical trial landscape has only become more complex, with clinical trial cycle times increasing despite technology advances. Cycle times are defined as the total duration from the approval of a clinical trial protocol to the database lock (DBL). As reported by Statista, the average clinical trial cycle from 2020 to 2024 increased by seven months.

Additionally, IQVIA recently released research indicating that almost 50% of drug development time is attributed to non-scientific delays, aka operational bottlenecks that create unnecessary gaps between critical milestones.

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