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Reports & Guides
October 28, 2026

Parsing the 2026 Patient Recruitment Roundup

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SMEs from Citeline and its parent company, Norstella, share how sponsors and CROs can take findings from this report and, with the help of Citeline solutions, turn them into opportunities to move the needle on patient recruitment.
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FAQ

MER is the median number of patients enrolled per site per month across all trials with available actual enrollment data. It reflects real-world recruitment performance rather than planned enrollment. The combined MER for industry-sponsored patient trials from 2022 to 2025 was 0.37 patients/site/month.
Overall median enrollment rates (MER) fell to a four-year low of 0.32 in 2024 and recovered modestly to 0.36 in 2025. In 2010, MER was 0.76, roughly double current levels. Enrollment duration has also risen in every phase since 2010, and Phase I more than doubled.
Phase IV trials lead on enrollment (MER 0.70–1.04), and Asian sites outperform North American and European sites in every phase and year studied. Infectious disease vaccine trials record the highest rates, up to a MER of 5.38 in 2025. Oncology and rare disease trials record the lowest rates (0.16–0.22). Small molecules also enroll faster than biologics.
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