Clinical Trial Design in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Randomized clinical trials provide the gold standard evidence base to guide clinical practice. Despite major advances in trial design, pediatric clinical trials are still difficult to perform and pose unique challenges, including the need to consider the impact of developmental changes in trial design. Advances within pediatric rheumatology combined with the need to comply with legislative requirements have driven new approaches to performing pediatric clinical trials such as utilization of large research networks, incorporation of patient and family stakeholders in the planning and implementation of clinical trials, and the development of novel trial designs. The expansion of available biological therapeutics that now includes biosimilar drugs highlights the important and difficult balance of providing new and cost-effective drugs to children while ensuring safety in a vulnerable population. Future advances in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) clinical trials will likely be the application of precision medicine based on biologic, rather than phenotypic, classification of JIA, with improved understanding of pediatric clinical pharmacology. Clinical trial simulations and comparative effectiveness studies are important supplements to traditional clinical trials, permitting efficient studies and results that are more generalizable.