PLANREFERENCE OUTLINE

Clinical Trial Laboratory Setup Plan

Setup plan that begins by determining which standard actually governs, because good clinical laboratory practice exists in the gap between nonclinical GLP and the diagnostic standards and neither fits trial sample analysis. Covers a quality system built around the trial rather than the specimen, run acceptance criteria fixed before use, competence evidenced per method, equipment with its failure impact on results, and an end-to-end data path. Maps to WHO GCLP (2009) and EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010.

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

CHECKING ACCESS

Checking your Professional access…

REGULATIONS MAPPED
WHO GCLP (2009)EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010
DOCUMENT TYPE
Plan
LAST UPDATED
August 2026
PURPOSE

Good clinical laboratory practice exists because of a gap. Nonclinical GLP governs safety studies and does not fit trial sample analysis; the diagnostic standards govern testing for the care of an individual patient and do not fit it either. Which standard governs your laboratory is your determination, and setting up under the wrong one produces a well-run laboratory that cannot support the trial.

What's Inside

A candidate-standard table answering, row by row, which standard governs this laboratory’s trial work
A quality system built around the trial and its protocol rather than around the specimen
Methods with run acceptance criteria fixed in writing before the first study sample arrives
Competence recorded per analyst per method, with the date each was authorised to run it
Equipment and environment entries carrying the impact of a failure on the reported results
Sample lifecycle from receipt through storage to disposal, including chain of custody records
End-to-end data path from acquisition to the transfer specification agreed with the sponsor

How to Use It

1Answer every row of the standards table rather than assuming an existing accreditation reaches trial work; a diagnostic accreditation covers a different activity.
2Fix run acceptance criteria in writing before use; criteria settled after results are seen are visible in the audit trail.
3Evidence competence per method, so the record answers whether this analyst could run this assay on this date.
4Record sample receipt condition and storage excursions; an unusable result traced to transport is still an unusable result.
5Agree the data transfer specification with the sponsor before the first sample arrives, including how queries are handled.
6Re-run the standards determination when the laboratory takes on a new trial type, because scope changes the answer.
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

Document Control
Document InformationApproval SignaturesRevision HistoryDistribution List
1Which Standard Governs
2Quality System Built Around the Trial
3Methods and Run Acceptance
4Staff Competence — Per Method
5Equipment and Environment
6End-to-End Data Path
REGULATORY CONTEXT

WHO Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (2009) and the EMA reflection paper EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010 set the expectations for laboratories analysing samples from clinical trials — an activity governed by neither nonclinical GLP nor the diagnostic laboratory standards. Neither document accredits a laboratory, chooses your acceptance criteria, or decides that an existing accreditation is sufficient for trial work; that determination is the laboratory’s and the sponsor’s to make and evidence. The plan structure is SPEQ practitioner synthesis.

MAPPED STANDARDS
WHO GCLP (2009)EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010
Browse the standards catalog →