Global Contract Research Organization (Cro) Market Is Growing Owing To The Increasing Number Of Clinical Trials Worldwide

A Contract Research Organization (CRO) is also known as a clinical research organization. It is basically an organization that conducts research activities for other companies including pre-clinical and clinical research. The contract research organization is specialized in conducting research as compared to pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies as these companies are also engaged in various activities such as production, in-house research, and development, marketing and sales. Outsourcing of clinical research activities also helps companies to focus on other activities such as expertise and facilities necessary for the clinical trials and maintaining the fixed cost of personnel within the company. A contract research organization has well skilled, experienced and qualified staff for various tasks such as medical function, regulatory submission, clinical operations, data management, biostatistics, medical writing, quality assurance and training and development of employees.

Contract research organizations support pharmaceutical and biotech companies to discover and approve pipeline drugs by absorbing the burden of some of the clinical trials. The spread of clinical trials across the world is rapidly increasing and bolstering demand for contract research organizations. The growing public pressure on drug and medicine prices and increasing spending by pharmaceutical companies also boost outsourcing of clinical trials to the contract research organizations. Increasing funding for research and development activities by various governments and private organizations worldwide is contributing significant efforts in the growth of the contract research organizations.

Contract research organization are majorly of two types namely preclinical contract research organizations and clinical trial contract research organizations.

Among these types, preclinical contract research organizations having more demand owing to rapidly increasing primary level research and development activities for the development of new molecules and drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The number of clinical trial contract research organizations is also increasing for various clinical phase research study activities.

Contract research organization are segmented on the basis of application such as the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, and medical device industry. Application wise, pharmaceutical industry occupied the largest share increasing emphasis on drug discovery and increasing funding and budget allocation.

Institutes such as the US Food and Drug Administrator (FDA) and the European Commission (EU) set various stringent rules, regulations, and guidance for clinical research activities. These describe strategies for monitoring activities that reflect different approaches which focus on clinical study parameters and efficacy.

North America contributed a significant role in the growth of the contract research organizations. In the region, the number of contract research organization is increasing owing to developed medical research infrastructure, availability of skilled personnel and increasing funding for research and development activities and for clinical trials. Europe is also playing an important role owing to the increasing number of contract research activities in countries in the region.

The Asia Pacific becoming the major hub of contract research organizations owing to availability of large sample pool for pre-clinical and clinical trials in countries such as China and India. The government initiatives and support in the region is also fueling growth of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and a number of contract research organizations subsequently.

Prominent players operating in the contract research organization market include Quintiles, LabCorp (Covance), PPD, Parexel, ICON, PRA, inventive, INC, CRL and Wuxi AppTec.