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The global contract research organization (CROs) market value reached USD 39 billion in 2018 and is expected to exceed USD 51 billion by 2024. The market is becoming competitive, with large CROs pursuing acquisitions and mergers to increase their portfolio and reach, while small and mid-sized CROs are gaining prominence due to their personal approach, flexibility of contact and cost-effective services.
What are CROs?
The process of drug discovery is complex and critical, while clinical development is more important with the requirement of huge resources and efficiency for optimal results.
Here, contract research organizations bridge the gap between discovery and bringing a drug to market for manufacturers by handling this burden. Data research, project management, post-approval, preclinical and clinical trials and studies are just some of the activities covered. CROs add value to research.
Before choosing a CRO, there are questions to answer
- Can a CRO offer the exact services a sponsor needs?
- Does the CRO have relevant experience and a good track record of similar projects?
- Is the CRO financially stable and able to cope with crisis movements?
- Does the CRO have key staff, training support and can assemble an experienced team to deliver qualified results?
- Does the CRO have the necessary infrastructure for your trial?
- Does the CRO have a robust quality assurance system?
Drug sponsors or developers need to look for partners that provide reliable results with comprehensive data and add support to their research. Thus, the selection of a CRO is a crucial and complex process and should be evaluated with caution.
Before working with a CRO, the following points should be considered
Regional CRO potential: It is not obvious that a CRO based or reputed in a certain country has the same reputation and experience as in another country. This means that the selection of CROs varies from country to country.
CRO Capabilities: A sponsor or manufacturer must understand the complete portfolio of a contract research organization with experience level, reputation, contract flexibility and global reach.
Project Implementation: A contract research organization should be efficient to handle the hurdles that arise during the clinical research process, such as patient recruitment, site management, reliable data extraction, and global applicability of data and regulatory expertise.
Quality of service: It is crucial to understand the quality of service and the data obtained from the study according to the required standards of the regulators and the global applicability of the data.
Now comes the question, which CROs should you prefer? Large CRO or small and medium CRO? That would be a debatable answer, however each has its merits.
Best Contract Research Organizations (CROs) for Clinical Trials
The large CRO market is becoming increasingly competitive: The trend of mergers and acquisitions improves the service capabilities of larger companies and international reach.
In 2018, the global CRO market was valued at USD 38,396.4 million and is projected to reach USD 90,926.3 million by the end of 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.4% during the forecast period, with the top 10 companies controlling 56% market.
Benefits of top CROs
- A global CRO provides staff training and maintains a deep background and experience that can be leveraged to address resource challenges in a large global clinical trial.
- Well established crisis management strategies.
- A global multiregional clinical trial
- Experience and improved approaches to address regulatory barriers.
- Quality and comprehensive clinical data with global acceptance.
- Along with the advantages, there are also some challenges in choosing large CROs compared to small and medium CROs.
Challenges with the best CROs
Budget can be a reconsideration factor for most sponsors and especially for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies.
Point of contact and flexibility in communication.
Collaborate with the sponsorship program from a strategic and cultural perspective.
Here is the list of top CROs worldwide based on total revenue, net income and expenses, growth between 2018.
List of top CROs worldwide
- Covance (Lab. Corp.)
- IQVIA
- Syneos Health
- Parexel
- PRA Health Sciences
- PPD
- Charles River
- ICON
- Wuxi AppTec
- MedPace
Let us briefly introduce the best CROs from the above list one by one in detail.
Covance
Covance Inc. is a Princeton, New Jersey-based contract research organization (CRO) that provides non-clinical, pre-clinical, clinical and commercialization services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. It is one of the largest companies of its kind in the world with annual revenues of over $4.5 billion.
Also read:- What Procedures Do Gastroenterology Clinical Trials Follow?
IQVIA
IQVIA, formerly Quintiles and IMS Health, Inc., is an American multinational corporation serving the combined health information technology and clinical research industries. It provides biopharmaceutical development and commercial outsourcing services with a network of more than 58,000 employees in more than 100 countries.
Syneos Health
Syneos Health (formerly InVentiv Health and INC) is a NASDAQ-listed American multinational contract research organization headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina. It is a fully integrated end-to-end clinical and commercial solutions organization.
Parexel
Parexel International is a global provider of biopharmaceutical services. It conducts clinical trials on behalf of its pharmaceutical clients to speed up the drug approval process. It has helped develop approximately 95% of the top 200 best-selling biopharmaceuticals on the market today and provides services such as clinical trial management, data management, medical writing, biostatistics, pharmacovigilance, regulatory consulting.
PRA Health Sciences
PRA Health Sciences is a contract research organization (CRO) based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They provides a long list of services in clinical research, phase I-IIa, phase II-III, post-approval, safety and risk management, therapeutic expertise, biosimilars, bioanalytical laboratories, rare diseases, oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, neurosciences, pain , pediatrics, vaccines, data and technology solutions,
PPD
PPD, Inc. headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, is a global contract research organization (CRO) that provides comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. They have offices in 46 countries and approximately 23,000 professionals worldwide.
Charles River
Charles River Laboratories, Inc., is an American corporation specializing in a variety of preclinical and clinical laboratory services for the pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology industries. It specializes in research models and services, pre-clinical services, Discovery research services, biological testing solutions, microbial identification, endotoxin testing, LAL, early detection, safety testing and agrochemicals.
ICON
ICON is an Irish drug developer for the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical industries. It offers clinical development consulting and commercialization services in a wide range of therapeutic areas from a worldwide network of offices. The organization is located in 98 locations in 40 countries.
Also read:- Gastroenterology CRO Is The Best For Hospitality
Wuxi AppTec
Wuxi AppTec, a Chinese company, is a contract researcher for most of the largest pharmaceutical, biotech and medical companies and many smaller companies. The company covers the development cycle through five core operations, including small molecule research and development and manufacturing, biological research and development and manufacturing, cell therapy and gene therapy research and development and manufacturing, medical device testing, and molecular testing and genomics.
MedPace
Medpace is a mid-sized clinical contract research organization (CRO) based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Provides services for Phase I-IV drug and medical device development, including regulatory and central laboratory services. Medpace employs approximately 3,600 people in 37 countries.
Small and Medium CROs
Although the main share of about 56% is occupied by large CRO companies. Small and medium-sized CROs are slowly gaining market size and surprising experts.
Small and mid-sized CROs have their advantage over large CROs and are the preferred choice of many pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.
In the following article II. In this section, we will take a detailed look at small and mid-range CROs, their benefits and details by region, study phase, and therapeutic area.
Also read:- Ophthalmology Clinical Trials CROs By Vial
How to choose the best CRO for your clinical trial?
Finding the right CRO partner is probably as critical to clinical trial success as the site or investigator. Therefore, it is important to make this selection based on carefully selected criteria and parameters.
Vial has extensive experience and expertise in making such selections for our clients. Vial often works as an extended arm of pharma/biotech companies in creating a clinical development strategy and selecting the right kind of vendors (including CROs) to successfully and rapidly complete clinical trials.
Discuss your clinical development needs with us for free today. We can help you develop a successful strategy and select the most appropriate CRO for your clinical trial.
