Glocalisation: A New Approach for Global Clinical Trials
Date: 05/5/2008
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Length: 00:06:20
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Thought Leader: Amanda Decoker, Account Manager at MediciGlobal
In this episode, Amanda Decoker, discusses how, and why, the business practice of “glocalisation” can be incorporated into the clinical development process, particularly for patient recruitment and retention in global studies. She also outlines the critical elements that are needed to successfully root global programs in local language and culture.
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Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to the PharmaVOICE Webcast Network in this episode of the industry vision.
I’m Taren Grom, Editor of PharmaVOICE, and I’m here today with Amanda DeCoker, account manager at MediciGlobal, who is going to talk about the importance of glocalization.
Amanda: Thank you for this opportunity.
Taren: Amanda, what is glocalization.
Amanda: Glocalization is a term that developed in the Japanese business practices of the 1980s to describe the concept of thinking globally and acting locally. It applies perfectly to clinical trials, particularly for any global study that must be deeply rooted in local language and culture.
Taren: That gives us a great starting point. Can you tell us where in the clinical trial process this concept is most important.
Amanda: Definitely. The concept of glocalization is most important in patient recruitment and retention as pharmaceutical companies conduct more clinical trials on a global scale. While at one point in time, a central approach of one design and simple translation may have been acceptable for patient recruitment and retention when the trial was limited to one country or region, but this approach is no longer acceptable. If a trial has patients in both emerging markets, such as India and China, as well as mature markets, like the US or UK, it is essential to customize the recruitment and retention materials and strategies to acknowledge the local nuances, while at the same time managing the global strategies as efficiently as possible.
Taren: That’s great. Now what are some of the critical elements for a patient program based on the concept of glocalization.
Amanda: Certainly. Such a program would have to have several areas of customization, in both tactics implemented and content of materials provided depending on the geographic area.
For example, we recently developed and implemented a recruitment program for a global adolescent schizophrenia study. Two of the countries involved were the United States and Singapore. When developing tactics and materials for both, we knew that differences would arise.
First, let’s look at the elements of the program. Both could contain educational materials for the patients, but we knew that the advertising methods utilized would need to differ. For the United States, it is quite easy to use almost any form of media. With this population, we knew from experience that a combination of both radio and print would be most effective. In Singapore, this combination would not work. Print is the only form of advertising permitted.
Taren: Terrific. That covers some of the critical elements. Now talk about content development.
Amanda: Anyone can simply take a US or European generated ad or patient informational booklet and translate it into a different language and change the images to reflect the perceived general population. To truly localize a piece is to make it appear that it was generated in that specific culture, rather than adapt it from another.
For this schizophrenia study, that meant analyzing both the copy, as well as the image. For the copy, that meant excluding such topics as possible compensation for materials in Singapore, but including it in the US. For images, that meant focusing on the family unit specifically in the materials for Singapore, but having the flexibility in the United States to feature the child alone. It also meant having to pay special attention to facial expressions displayed in the images for Singapore to ensure a hopeful feeling, rather than hinting at the possibility of distress for the child.
As evident, much thought must go into truly localizing patient materials to consider social norms and culture and to ensure perception of local development, rather than local adaptation.
Taren: Those are great points. From your experience at MediciGlobal, what are some ways that companies can make sure they account for all of the elements while still maintaining effective global operations?
Amanda: We know that tight timelines and budgets are everyone’s challenge. We know too that the traditional method of developing recruitment and retention materials is costly and time intensive. We have developed a web-based application that pushes the development process out to the countries and down to the local level. This empowers local clinical teams in shaping materials that are specific to the needs of patients in their countries.
Taren: In relation to the application you just described, are there some applicable metrics that you can share?
Amanda: Just to provide you with an example of how effective this is, for a recent study involving 62 research centers in 18 countries with 27 different languages requiring a total of 243 booklets, we were able to cut the total production time of the patient materials by one and a half years and reduce overall design costs by 30%. We know that time and cost constraints will only continue to put clinical teams under pressure and that these constraints have prevented many teams from localizing their patient materials to the degree that they should. Now they can achieve this and deliver the most effective patient program possible.
This is why glocalization, the concept of thinking globally and acting locally, is so very important. It is only through the implementation of this mantra that pharmaceutical companies can meet the demands of today and constantly plan for the global studies of tomorrow.
Taren: Thank you, Amanda. This was an informative look at adapting the concept of glocalization through the clinical trial process, particularly for patient recruitment and retention.
Amanda: Thank you again for this opportunity.
Taren: If you would like more information about the concept of glocalization that Amanda just discussed, or the web-based application, please visit www.mediciglobal.com.
Don’t forget to check out our other videocasts at www.pharmavoice.com/videocasts.
If you have any comments on this episode, or if you’d like to be featured in a feature videocast, send an email to feedback@pharmavoice.com.
Thank you.
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