Luana Colloca
Seminars
Tuesday 26th January 2027
Optimizing Clinical Trial Design to Detect Efficacy & Mitigate High Placebo Response in Chronic Pain
9:00 am
This workshop will explore practical strategies to improve assay sensitivity in pain trials by reducing placebo response, refining patient selection and optimizing endpoint design. Attendees will discuss how study design choices can strengthen efficacy signals, improve regulatory confidence and increase the likelihood of clinical success across diverse pain populations.
Key Topics Covered:
- How can patient selection criteria, trial design and site execution be optimized to reduce placebo response and improve signal detection in chronic pain studies?
- What role do biomarkers, patient-reported outcomes and clinically meaningful endpoints play in distinguishing true treatment effects from placebo-driven responses?
- How should crossover, parallel-group and other trial designs be applied across acute, chronic and paediatric pain indications to maximize sensitivity and relevance?
- What evolving regulatory approaches, including historical controls and single pivotal trial pathways, could streamline development while maintaining robust efficacy and safety standards?
Wednesday 27th January 2027
Panel Discussion: Solving the Placebo Problem in Chronic Pain Trials
3:30 pm
- Reduce placebo inflation through protocol design and site management
- Improve patient training and consistency across sites
- Examine crossover and adaptive study designs
- Apply lessons from successful recent programs
