Cost analysis of the TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial on novel tuberculosis treatment regimens

Clinical trials are considered to be the largest contributor to pharmaceutical development costs. However, public disclosure of the costs of individual clinical trials is rare. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) sponsored a phase 2b-3 randomised controlled trial (TB-PRACTECAL), which identified a new treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB. We aimed to analyse the costs of undertaking a pivotal clinical trial conducted in relatively low-resource health settings and to demonstrate the feasibility of reporting clinical trial costs. TB-PRACTECAL trial costs were analysed using MSF accounting documents. Costs were broken down by cost category, year, and trial site. Total costs for TB-PRACTECAL were €33.9 million and the average cost per patient was €61,460. Twenty-six percent of total costs represented central activities (e.g. trial planning, trial management) and 72% represented trial site activities, with 2% uncategorizable. Within trial site costs, personnel costs were the largest cost (43%) followed by external diagnostic services (11%), medicines (9%), and other medical consumables (7%). Cost variation across trial sites was driven by different varying levels of pre-existing trial infrastructure. A review of previous studies yielded a wide range of cost estimates for clinical trials (ranging US$7–221 million/trial for pharmaceutical phase 2 and 3 trials). Nearly all previous estimates derive from industry reporting that is neither standardized nor auditable; to our knowledge, this is the first published comprehensive analysis of direct expenditures of a specific clinical trial including detailed cost breakdowns. The €34 million cost of TB-PRACTECAL included investments in developing clinical trial infrastructure, the complexity of managing six sites across three health systems, and medical expenditures that are not typical of standard clinical trials. Greater transparency in drug development costs can inform medicine pricing negotiations and is a key element in the design and implementation of more equitable systems of biomedical research and development.