Innovative thinking of clinical investigation for rare disease drug development

For the development of a test treatment or drug product, it is necessary to conduct composite hypothesis testing to test for effectiveness and safety simultaneously, since some approved drug products have been recalled due to safety concerns. One of the major issues in conducting a composite hypothesis testing for effectiveness and safety is the requirement of a huge sample size to achieve the desired power for detecting clinically meaningful differences in both safety and effectiveness. Situation can be much difficult in orphan drug development. In this article, a generalized two-stage innovative approach to test for effectiveness and safety simultaneously is proposed. Additionally, to alleviate the requirement of a large randomized clinical trial (RCT) and revealing effectiveness, real-world data is suggested to use in conjunction with RCT data for orphan drug development. The proposed approach can help investigators test for effectiveness and safety at the same time without worrying about the sample size. It also helps reduce the probability of approving a drug product with safety concerns.