Platform Trial
A flexible trial design that evaluates multiple interventions simultaneously against a shared control group, with the ability to add or drop treatment arms over time. Platform trials improve efficiency by sharing infrastructure and control group data across multiple comparisons.
Technical Context
Platform trials use a master protocol and shared infrastructure to evaluate multiple treatments simultaneously. Advantages: shared control group (reducing total sample size and placebo exposure), continuous operation (adding new arms as they become available, dropping arms for futility), and standardised data collection. RECOVERY (COVID-19) and I-SPY (breast cancer) are prominent platform trial examples. For peptide therapeutics, a metabolic platform trial could compare multiple GLP-1 RAs, dual agonists, and triple agonists against a shared placebo or standard-of-care control, with the ability to add emerging agents over time. Platform trials require complex governance structures to manage competing sponsor interests.