The working relations between contract research organisations (CROs) and sponsors is vital in the process of putting products on the market.
The rise of clinical outsourcing
Pharmaceutical companies need to expand outside of their own in-house departments and outsource some of their clinical trials to CROs. Clinical outsourcing has increased in tandem with the proliferation of research and development. 72% of trials by 2020 will be outsourced, findings by MarketsandMarkets suggest. MarketsandMarkets estimate the CRO market to be worth around $56.34 billion by 2023.
Outsourcing can speed up the process of clinical trials and development by sharing resources and specialist knowledge. It can also improve safety and data quality while reducing infrastructure and operations costs. Read More Marketing Strategy for Business Growth
Companies that offer the likes of adaptive phase 1 studies, such as http://www.richmondpharmacology.com/specialist-services/adaptive-phase-i-studies, are in demand and vital in the effort to push forward innovation in science and healthcare.
The importance of effective collaboration
Trust, transparency, joint decision-making and effective communication between CROs and sponsors are all needed to ensure the process is smooth, reliable and as efficient as possible. This will prevent problems with quality, timeframe adherence and accuracy in the long run.
This quality collaboration can be challenging, however, given the differing focal points and values of each party. CROs, for instance, will generally have a focus on business and economic goals, spreading themselves across various sponsors to achieve profitability for owners and investors. Meanwhile, sponsors generally focus on speeding up the process while accessing the knowledge that CROs offer, so as to meet research and development targets in a cost-effective manner. These need to be aligned, and common ground found, to ensure ultimate goals are reached in a way in which satisfies both parties.
For an effective relationship, it’s important that each party understands and respects the other party’s culture. A sense of partnership needs to be built in order to work together on shared goals and overlapping values, from which a jointly constructed framework of communication can be made. This should include both the expectations of communication and an escalation plan. There should be an agreed set of KPIs (key performance indicators), ongoing assessments of risk to ensure quality data, and defined roles for each member involved. Working together in this way will therefore result in more efficient, cost-effective and quality research, trials and results.
