Real-world evidence represents critical evidence to support post-marketing drug monitoring, assessment and policy decisions, and has received extensive attentions. However, an explicit over-arching design and conceptual framework for this specific area is lacking. Divergent opinions on the production of real world evidence are often present among researchers; and understanding about their implications also differ among policy makers and evidence users. In this article, we have proposed, from the regulatory and clinical perspectives, a conceptual framework on the use of real world data for post-marketing drug studies, assessment and policy decisions.
In recent years, real-world evidence data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) have gained substantial attentions from healthcare practitioners and health authorities worldwide. In particular, the needs from regulatory bodies have promoted the production and use of real-world evidence. In the context of drug and device evaluation and regulation decisions, the pattern for using real world evidence may differ. This article aimed to discuss the potential uses of RWE for pre-approval clinical evaluation, post-approval monitoring and evaluation, and associated regulatory decisions, which may ultimately improve the production and use of RWE for regulatory decisions.