CRO Expansion Concerns

It has been estimated that the CRO industry will expand from being $7 billion in 2006 to $19 billion by 2013. While some reports may vary, they all agree that the industry will see a huge boom in the next couple of years. This article from FierceBioResearcher delves into the reason why the boom will take place. As they explain, biotech companies are starting to become more reliant on CRO’s. Instead of doing all of the R&D work in-house, more and more companies are looking to outsource those functions. In fact for every $5 spent on R & D, $1 of that, is being outsourced. The article also cautions though, that without “significant government oversight”, there may be reason for concern when turning to CRO’s for drug trial management. As Norbert Bischofberger, Chief Scientific Officer from Gillead’s, remarks, however,

“If you want to do that all by yourself, you need an unbelievable infrastructure that we’ve never had. It’s just too expensive.”

So despite rising concern over safety, there may be no other options for the makers of drugs, except to turn to CRO’s.