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Developing an adaptive platform trial for evaluation of medical treatments for Crohn’s disease

There is emerging interest in adaptive platform trials for inflammatory bowel disease. In this Comment, we present the results of a workshop that was convened to consider the opportunities and challenges of developing a platform trial in Crohn’s disease.

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Fig. 1: Proposed platform trial design for moderate and severe Crohn’s disease.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank individuals at Crohn’s and Colitis UK (K. Nightingale and R. Ainley) and patient research champions from Crohn’s and Colitis UK (S. Andrew and T. Kelly) for their review and valued contributions. The authors also acknowledge advice from additional individuals who were not able to join for this workshop (J. Begun, Australia; P. Irving, UK; and S. Sebastian, UK). There is no specific funding associated with the development of this manuscript. N.M.N. is supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203312). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. B.C.-O. and M.K.B.P. are supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) (MC_UU_00004_09).

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Correspondence to Gordon W. Moran.

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N.M.N. has received educational grants and/or speaker fees from AbbVie, BMS, Celltrion, Dr Falk Pharma, Ferring, Galapagos, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Medfyle, Pfizer, Pharmacosmos, Takeda and Tillotts Pharma AG, all outside of the submitted work. A.L.H. has received consultancy fees from AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celltrion, Galapagos, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, Pfizer and Eli Lilly; has received honoraria from AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celltrion, Galapagos, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, Pfizer and Eli Lilly; and has received support for attending meetings or travel from AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celltrion, Galapagos, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, Pfizer and Eli Lilly, all outside of the submitted work. J.O.L. reports personal fees from AbbVie, Atlantic Healthcare, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Celltrion, Engytix, Eli Lilly, Ferring, Galapagos, Gilead, GSK, Janssen, MSD, Norgine, Pfizer, Shire and Takeda outside the submitted work; and grants from AbbVie, Ferring, Gilead, Takeda and Shire outside the submitted work. N.A.K. reports personal fees from Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celltrion, Falk, Galapagos, Janssen, Pfizer, Pharmacosmos, Takeda and Tillotts Pharma outside the submitted work; and reports data monitoring board membership for the BEACON study outside the submitted work. V.J. reports personal fees from AbbVie, Alimentiv (formerly Robarts Clinical Trials), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Asahi Kasei Pharma, Asieris, AstraZeneca, Avoro Capital, BMS, Celltrion, Endpoint Health, Enthera, Ferring, Flagship Pioneering, Fresenius Kabi, Galapagos, Gilde Healthcare, GSK, Genentech, Gilead, Innomar, JAMP, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Metacrine, Mylan, Pandion, Pendopharm, Pfizer, Protagonist, Prometheus, Reistone Biopharma, Roche, Roivant, Sandoz, SCOPE, Second Genome, Sorriso Pharmaceuticals, Takeda, Teva, Topivert, Ventyx and Vividion outside the submitted work; and fees from advisory board membership of AbbVie, Alimentiv (formerly Robarts Clinical Trials), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Asahi Kasei Pharma, Asieris, AstraZeneca, BMS, Celltrion, Ferring, Flagship Pioneering, Fresenius Kabi, Galapagos, Gilde Healthcare, GSK, Genentech, Gilead, Innomar, JAMP, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Metacran, Mylan, Pandion, Pendopharm, Pfizer, Protagonist, Prometheus, Reistone Biopharma, Roche, Sandoz, SCOPE, Second Genome, Sorriso Pharmaceuticals, Takeda, Teva, Topivert, Ventyx and Vividion, all outside the submitted work. G.W.M. declares consultancy fees/grant funding from AbbVie, AstraZeneca and Janssen, all outside the submitted work. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Noor, N.M., Radford, S.J., Choodari-Oskooei, B. et al. Developing an adaptive platform trial for evaluation of medical treatments for Crohn’s disease. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 22, 364–366 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01052-0

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