The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 34

INTERESTING NICHES | CLINICAL TRIALS
With Lorne Wiebe-P&C Broker, Rhodes & Williams
R
hodes & Williams Group of Companies is a
nationally licensed brokerage with a fairly even
split across Personal and Commercial Lines,
headquartered in Ottawa. Although as an office
they cover general Commercial insurance, many
of their Commercial Producers have specific niches they
target-one of those niches is Clinical Trials.
How did Rhodes & Williams become involved in this niche?
Clinical trials aren't a niche our brokerage has pursued as
a whole, but we have some excellent brokers who have
deep knowledge and experience in this space. When I first
started as a broker, I heard about clinical trial insurance and
attended several conferences which weren't insurance driven
at all-they were geared towards educating the organizations
involved in running and sponsoring trials. What better way
to learn about the challenges facing these companies than
to hear their stories firsthand? The knowledge I took away
has helped me guide organizations with their trial insurance.
Plenty of coordination is required along with a close working
relationship with the underwriter and your client.
" I attend clinical trial
conferences and events and
through the process of meeting
and greeting folks and sitting at
the table with them, an organic
relationship can grow.
What are the unique challenges in insuring these clients?
There's a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to multinationals
because most of the coverage needs to be placed directly in
overseas locations. Occasionally clients want to conduct trials
in difficult-to-insure locations. I'm currently working on a trial
in Russia-not the easiest place to do business. But there's
been a serious push in some of these countries to up their
game hosting clinical trials, and foreign regulators have been
doing their best to attract them. There's tax money involved
and it helps solidify their jurisdiction's medical expertise. So as
more countries become attractive for trials, we're seeing more
trials take place overseas. You have to know the insurance
markets that can follow them and offer the proper coverage
which is often heavily regulated in the country of choice.
What are some of the unique features of their coverage?
With multinational trials, you may need to place an insurance
policy that complies with local government regulations. That
often means engaging a local brokerage in that country.
Sometimes these local policies are subpar so it's best
practice to secure a North American-style master policy that
will respond with Difference in Conditions and Difference in
Limits, which basically becomes your backstop in the event
of a claim, which doesn't trigger the subpar foreign policy.
The master is intended to respond to those denied claims
with broader coverage and the limits we're used to seeing in
Canada. Some organizations view required foreign policies as
part of the cost of doing business overseas, they're not really
expected to respond well in the event of a claim.
What are some of the common claims they face?
Insurers are pretty tight-lipped about the claims they see in
this space. Some underwriters have shared stories of a trial
participant alleging injury due to a trial-if other participants
learn of the alleged injury, suddenly a class-action suit
appears. I think for the most part trials are very closely
underwritten and insurers perform significant due diligence
before they agree to quote. I've certainly had underwriters
decline quoting if there's a history of poor performance of a
drug, for example.
How do you target this segment?
I attend clinical trial conferences and events and through the
process of meeting and greeting folks and sitting at the table
with them, an organic relationship can grow. Once you help a
trial sponsor or a research organization and they're pleased
with your service and results, they tend to recommend you
to others looking to insure trials. Most of my work is by
referral.
How has coverage changed to adjust to the pandemic?
The pandemic's certainly delayed trials everywhere. Clinics
are busy reallocating resources to help on the pandemic
frontlines. A few times when the Covid case count would
drop, we'd think perhaps a trial could get underway, but then
the numbers would go up and the trial would be delayed
again. For a while some insurers stopped quoting any trial
that had anything to do with Covid research, but we're now
seeing a loosening of that blanket declination.
34
THE ONTARIO BROKER
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4

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