Table 2. Key recruitment characteristics of industry-sponsored phase III trials with “drug” as intervention conducted during 2008–2019.

Over time development of recruitment duration, recruitment rate, number of sites and site effectiveness are presented in the table together with corresponding p-values.

Trial characteristics	Trials completed 2008–2011	Trials completed 2012–2015	Trials completed 2016–2019	p-value (Kruskal-Wallis test**)
Recruitment duration in months, median (IQR)	13 (7–23)	13 (8–22)	18 (11–28)	P = 0.0068
Number of participants enrolled per month of recruitment, median (IQR)	26 (10–60)	23 (8–61)	20 (10–46)	P = 0.37
Number of sites, median (IQR)	51 (24–93)	43 (17–84)	64 (30–118)	P = 3.945e-08
Number of participants enrolled per site, median (IQR)	7 (5–11)	7 (5–13)	6 (4–10)	P = 2.755e-06
Number of participants enrolled per site per month, median (IQR)	0.6	0.8	0.4	P = 5.841e-06