C-Path receives FDA contract to develop clinical outcome assessments for pediatric asthma

The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) announced today it has been awarded a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) contract in support of ongoing development of novel clinical outcome assessments for pediatric asthma. C-Path's Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Consortium will carry out this work through its Pediatric Asthma Working Group. Specifically, these assessments are intended to facilitate innovative patient-focused drug development and aid regulatory decision making by filling an unmet measurement gap.

The 5-year partnership has two aims. The first is to conduct qualitative research to confirm the content validity of a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure for children from 8 through 11 years old with asthma and an observer-reported outcome (ObsRO) measure for caregivers of children from 4 through 11 years old with asthma. The second aim is to conduct quantitative research to generate evidence of cross-sectional measurement properties of the PRO and ObsRO measures to support their qualification under FDA's Clinical Outcome Assessment Qualification Program.

We are honored to receive FDA support of, and collaboration on, this new project. FDA funding, in combination with the expertise of the PRO Consortium, will enable development of much-needed tools for the scientific community and, most importantly, will ultimately lead to improved medical outcomes for pediatric asthma patients."

Joseph Scheeren, Pharm.D, C-Path President and CEO

Pediatric asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways and is the most common childhood condition worldwide. In the United States, asthma is twice as common in children as adults and is a leading cause of school absenteeism as well as the third ranking cause of hospitalization of children.

"Pediatric asthma treatment trials face challenges in the reliable assessment of lung function in young children leading to the need to assess self-reportable or observable signs and symptoms of asthma to evaluate the benefit of new therapies," said Stephen Joel Coons, Ph.D., Executive Director of the PRO Consortium. "These fit-for-purpose measures will significantly enhance the assessment of clinical benefit for children with asthma."