Clinical Trial Intelligence

Which EU Sites Lead Phase III Heart Failure Trials, and Where Is Capacity Concentrated?

17 June 2026

Across 28 Phase III heart failure trials, the dataset contains 656 EU/EEA site entries and 18,714 country-level planned participants. Hospital Universitario La Paz is the leading site with participation in 6 of 28 trials, while Spain leads by site count with 100 of 656 site entries and Poland leads by planned participant allocation with 4,741 of 18,714 participants.

28
Phase III trials
656
EU/EEA site entries
18,714
country-level planned participants
6
trials at the top-ranked site

Which sites appear most often in Phase III heart failure trials?

The top 10 sites account for 46 site-trial participations. Hospital Universitario La Paz leads with 6 trial participations, equal to 21.4% of the 28-trial cohort. Six of the top 10 sites are in Spain.

Top 10 sites by number of distinct Phase III heart failure trials
Rank Site Country Trials
1Hospital Universitario La PazSpain6
2Uniwersytecki Szpital Kliniczny w PoznaniuPoland5
3Hospital Universitari Vall d'HebronSpain5
4Hospital Clinico Universitario de ValenciaSpain5
5ASST Papa Giovanni XXIIIItaly5
6Region Skane Skanes UniversitetssjukhusSweden4
7Hospital Universitario y Politecnico La FeSpain4
8Hospital Universitario Ramon y CajalSpain4
9Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro de MajadahondaSpain4
10Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de SantiagoSpain4
Site rank is based on distinct trial-code participation, not patient count.
Interpretation

The site ranking is highly Spain-weighted: Spanish hospitals represent 7 of the 10 highest-frequency institutions, suggesting Spain is a repeat-use heart failure Phase III execution market rather than only a high-volume country in isolated trials.

Which countries carry the largest heart failure site footprint?

Spain leads by site count with 100 of 656 site entries, or 15.2%. Poland follows with 96 site entries, France with 91, Italy with 68, Germany with 58, and the Netherlands with 52. Together, the top 6 countries account for 465 of 656 site entries, or 70.9%.

Country share of all site entries
Spain15.2%
Poland14.6%
France13.9%
Italy10.4%
Germany8.8%
Netherlands7.9%
Greece6.6%
Sweden5.8%
Bulgaria3.5%
Czechia3.0%
Percentages use 656 total country-site entries as denominator.
Interpretation

The operational footprint is broad but not evenly distributed. Spain, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands form the practical core for EU Phase III heart failure site activation.

Which countries carry the largest planned participant allocation?

Poland leads planned participant allocation with 4,741 of 18,714 participants, or 25.3%. Sweden is second with 2,387 participants, followed by France with 1,960 and Germany with 1,515. The top 10 countries account for 16,683 of 18,714 participants, or 89.1%.

Country share of planned participant allocation
Country Participants Share
Poland4,74125.3%
Sweden2,38712.8%
France1,96010.5%
Germany1,5158.1%
Spain1,2796.8%
Netherlands1,1146.0%
Denmark1,0805.8%
Bulgaria9955.3%
Italy8904.8%
Czechia7223.9%
Participant values are country-level planned allocations across the Phase III heart failure cohort.
Interpretation

Spain leads by site footprint, but Poland leads by planned participant allocation. For feasibility, this means site availability and enrollment allocation point to different country priorities.

Which heart failure subtypes drive site exposure?

HFrEF and reduced-ejection-fraction or left-ventricular-systolic-dysfunction trials account for 312 site entries across 7 trials. HFpEF/HFmrEF trials also appear in 7 trials but account for 155 site entries. Acute or decompensated heart failure appears in 6 trials and 83 site entries.

Largest non-mutually-exclusive disease clusters by site entries
HFrEF / reduced EF / LV systolic dysfunction312 sites
7 of 28 trials
HFpEF / HFmrEF155 sites
7 of 28 trials
HF plus kidney disease97 sites
3 of 28 trials
Acute / decompensated HF83 sites
6 of 28 trials
Pulmonary hypertension plus HF51 sites
1 of 28 trials
Ischemic HF / ischemic CV disease48 sites
4 of 28 trials
Disease clusters are trial-level tags and may overlap when a trial includes multiple populations.
Interpretation

The biggest site footprint is in reduced-ejection-fraction or systolic-dysfunction populations, even though HFpEF/HFmrEF appears in the same number of trials. Site demand is therefore more intense in reduced-EF execution than trial counts alone suggest.

Which modalities dominate Phase III heart failure trials?

Small molecules dominate the cohort, appearing in 23 of 28 trials, or 82.1%. Monoclonal antibodies appear in 2 trials, peptide/protein/enzyme products in 1 trial, other/non-standard intervention classes in 1 trial, and 1 trial has no specified modality. Combination treatment is used in 12 of 28 trials, or 42.9%.

Modality distribution across 28 trials
Small molecule23 / 28 · 82.1%
Monoclonal antibody2 / 28 · 7.1%
Peptide / protein / enzyme1 / 28 · 3.6%
Other / non-standard class1 / 28 · 3.6%
Not specified1 / 28 · 3.6%
5
finerenone trials
5
empagliflozin trials
5
dapagliflozin trials
Route signal: oral active interventions appear in 21 of 28 trials; subcutaneous in 4; intravenous in 2.
Interpretation

Phase III heart failure remains predominantly an oral small-molecule execution environment. Site operations should expect standard drug-dispensing workflows more often than infusion- or biologic-heavy infrastructure.

How complex are the designs, and how often are CROs used?

Randomisation is nearly universal, appearing in 27 of 28 trials, or 96.4%. Open-label designs appear in 8 of 28 trials, real-world control in 1 of 28, and recorded stratification factors in 3 of 28. CRO presence is recorded in 15 of 28 trials, or 53.6%.

Trial-design and outsourcing signals
96.4%
randomised trials · 27 / 28
28.6%
open-label trials · 8 / 28
46,688
summed target sample size
1,290
median target sample size
CRO present15 / 28 · 53.6%
Top recurring CRO/vendor names: IQVIA Limited appears in 4 trials; Emerald Clinical Trials B.V., Suvoda LLC, Medidata Solutions Inc., Icon Clinical Research Limited, and Fisher Clinical Services GmbH each appear in 3 trials.
CRO use is counted trial-level from the sponsor variable.
Interpretation

The cohort is operationally large but methodologically conventional: nearly all trials are randomised, only 1 uses a real-world control, and CRO use passes the 50% mark. Outsourcing demand is therefore tied more to scale and multinational execution than to unusual design mechanics.

Which endpoints define Phase III heart failure trials?

Among 27 trials with primary endpoint content, 19 use a composite heart-failure or cardiovascular event primary endpoint, equal to 70.4%. One-primary-endpoint designs dominate: 24 of 27 trials with primary endpoint content have exactly one primary endpoint, or 88.9%. The median number of secondary endpoints is 5.

Primary endpoint category frequency
Composite HF/CV event primary19 / 27 · 70.4%
Biomarker primary component5 / 27 · 18.5%
KCCQ / patient-reported outcome primary2 / 27 · 7.4%
Safety primary component2 / 27 · 7.4%
6-minute walk distance primary1 / 27 · 3.7%
Endpoint categories are not mutually exclusive. KCCQ = Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire; CV = cardiovascular; HF = heart failure.
Interpretation

Heart failure Phase III endpoint strategy is anchored in clinical event composites, especially cardiovascular death, hospitalization, urgent HF visits, and recurrent HF events. KCCQ and functional measures are important but more often appear as secondary or supportive measures than as the primary endpoint.

What should trial teams take away from the EU heart failure Phase III landscape?

For Phase III heart failure trials, the strongest execution signal is not a single country but a country-site pattern: Spain supplies the densest repeat-site network, Poland supplies the largest planned participant allocation, and reduced-EF/systolic-dysfunction studies generate the largest site footprint. Operationally, most trials are randomised oral small-molecule studies, while CRO involvement appears in just over half of the cohort.

Site selection

Prioritise repeat-use Spanish hospitals for network reliability, especially Hospital Universitario La Paz, Vall d'Hebron, La Fe, Ramon y Cajal, and Puerta de Hierro.

Country planning

Separate site-footprint planning from recruitment-allocation planning: Spain leads the first, while Poland leads the second.

Protocol operations

Expect conventional randomised trial operations, event-driven endpoint adjudication, KCCQ support, and predominantly oral small-molecule logistics.