Introducing the NSW Clinical Trials Pharmacy Access Program

There are several different participation models offered as part of the program, and these can be further tailored to your pharmacy and your community.

The most common participating model involves identifying eligible patients through search queries, sharing trial information with patients, and then referring to Canopy. This model does not require any additional infrastructure that is not already available at every community pharmacy in NSW.

The second model involves the implementation of a pre-screening clinic on-site at your pharmacy. This model may require a dedicated consultation room, so that particular activities can be run, including diabetes Hba1c testing, blood pressure assessments, and more in-detailed pre-screening.

Pharmacy staff do not require prior experience in clinical trials to participate in the program.

Once the agreement is signed, Canopy will run an onboarding session with relevant staff members to train them on search queries, eligibility criteria, pre-screening over the phone, and how to refer patients.

Every participating pharmacy will be assigned a dedicated Canopy staff member to support with any queries.

Canopy Clinical Research has clinical trial locations in Penrith, Wollongong, Inner West, Sutherland, and Brookvale.

In general, we typically look for patients who are within 40-50KM travelling distance of our locations, to ensure compliance with the study assessments and visits.

This program is currently available to pharmacies in Sydney and the Illawarra region, however if you are interested in becoming involved and run a pharmacy in another part of NSW, please get in touch and we can discuss how we may be able to work together.

All clinical trials conducted in Australia must be reviewed and approved by an independent Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) before participants can be enrolled, to help ensure that participants’ rights, safety and wellbeing are protected throughout the study.

Pharmacists will receive financial compensation for pre-screening activities, e.g. study-specific payments for identifying patients, and reimbursement for time spent on research activities.

Opportunities range from $1000 up to $7,000 per therapeutic program, depending on the participation model and screening activity.

When sharing clinical trial data with authorised agencies, participant data is ‘de-identified’ and replaced with a participant ID or code – meaning that your patient’s personal details are not disclosed. This ensures that your patient’s information always remains confidential.

Your patient’s personal contact details will only ever be used for the purpose of research at Canopy Clinical and will not be shared with any third parties without their explicit permission, except when required by law.

Insurance arrangements vary between providers and policies. Pharmacies should review their existing professional indemnity and business insurance coverage and seek advice from their insurer or legal adviser regarding any activities related to patient referrals for research.