Analysis of Serious Breach Cases Reported in the EU Clinical Trials Information System: Quantitative and Qualitative...

Serious breaches are significant deviations that may compromise participant safety or data integrity in clinical trials. Public reports in the EU CTIS offer a valuable, though limited, opportunity to examine reporting practices and identify potential operational gaps. This study used a mixed-methods approach to analyze publicly available CTIS serious breach notifications.

All publicly available CTIS serious breach notifications were reviewed. Quantitative variables included (i) the interval from breach occurrence to sponsor awareness and (ii) the interval from sponsor awareness to public posting in CTIS. Qualitative assessment employed descriptive content analysis to categorize breach themes.

Most cases were assigned to the Protocol category (n = 50, 72.5%), followed by the Regulation category (n = 12, 17.4%). Breaches involving both Protocol and Regulation occurred in 7 cases (10.1%). The occurrence-to-awareness interval had a median of 50 days (n = 67; Q1-Q3: 9-130; range: 0-1996). The awareness-to-public-posting interval had a median of 7 days (n = 67; Q1-Q3: 6-25; range: 0-381). Qualitative analysis identified nine higher-order theme families, including Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) management and concomitant therapy, allocation and blinding integrity, eligibility and informed consent, safety management and regulatory reporting, and data integrity and documentation (ALCOA+).

Public CTIS serious breach notifications offer a useful, though incomplete, perspective on trial conduct issues under the Clinical Trials Regulation. Because key details, such as competent-authority assessments, are not publicly available, these findings should be interpreted with caution.