How sponsors can act earlier to meet patients where intent begins.
Recruitment failures rarely happen at the site. They begin months earlier—when a motivated patient starts searching for help and finds no clear path into research. By the time outreach begins, that intent has faded or found another route.
This “invisible stage” of recruitment—the pre-discovery period—is becoming the new operational frontier for sponsors who want faster timelines, lower costs, and more equitable participation.
Across the industry, 80% of trials miss enrollment targets, and nearly half of sites fail to recruit a single participant. Yet, patient interest isn’t the problem. A 2024 CISCRP survey found that two in three patients say they would consider joining a clinical trial if they could easily find one relevant to their condition. The gap lies in visibility and timing.
Traditional recruitment begins after protocol approval, when materials are finalized and budgets are released. But patient curiosity peaks far earlier—during diagnosis, treatment frustration, or community discussions. Sponsors who wait to engage until a study launches are already behind.
Think of pre-discovery as early demand generation for research participation. Patients are actively searching for options long before a single ad goes live. In these upstream moments, education—not enrollment—is the key conversion metric.
Organizations like the NIH and patient advocacy groups report significant spikes in traffic to trial-related resources following disease awareness campaigns. When sponsors partner at this stage—offering credible, jargon-free content—they turn that curiosity into long-term awareness.
Pre-discovery engagement doesn’t replace downstream recruitment. It makes it more efficient. It fills databases with informed, motivated candidates who understand what participation entails and are ready when a study opens.
Operationally, early engagement requires infrastructure. Data governance must be established before public activity begins, and messaging must stay compliant even when the protocol is still in development. But the payoff is measurable.
Antidote’s own research shows that campaigns built on pre-discovery audiences can shorten time to first referral by up to 30%, because they begin with a patient pool that’s already informed and pre-qualified. Sites benefit too: fewer ineligible referrals, less time spent on basic education, and faster progression to screening.
Sponsors can operationalize readiness through:
Diversity and inclusion in research can’t be solved downstream. Communities historically underrepresented in clinical trials often face both informational and trust barriers. Engaging these communities early—through local advocacy groups, translated educational content, and representation in imagery—creates a baseline of understanding long before recruitment begins.
As regulators move toward requiring diversity plans in every protocol, sponsors who invest in pre-discovery outreach are better positioned to deliver on those commitments.
Pre-discovery is not a marketing add-on; it’s a shift in mindset. When sponsors invest in early awareness, they transform the front end of recruitment from reactive advertising to proactive relationship building.
The result is a pipeline that’s not only faster but more human—where patients find clarity instead of confusion, and sites receive referrals that are ready to move forward.
Antidote’s new white paper, The Invisible Stage of Trial Recruitment, details how pre-discovery and demand generation create measurable advantages in patient recruitment.