Western Europe sees drop in active investigators

The number of active investigators in Western Europe has dropped 9.1% during the past five years, as sites struggle with regulatory burdens and unprecedented economic challenges caused by the European financial crisis. According to a new CenterWatch analysis, the number of active investigators declined steadily between 2007 and 2010, from 4,511 to 2,999, then increased 2.7% to 3,079 last year. The new analysis estimates the size of the Western European clinical grants market at $1.34 billion last year, a 3.2% increase from 2010. CenterWatch had to base its analysis on partial metrics about Western European sites, since more comprehensive figures are not maintained by regulatory agencies in the European Union. Industry experts, however, confirm that the number of recent years. Despite this downward trend, Western European sites saw encouraging signs of...

Traditional patient recruitment still missing timelines

Improvements in the site selection process over the past few years have resulted in a higher percentage of sites meeting their enrollment targets. Surprising data from a recent Tufts CSDD Working Group Study about patient recruitment and retention practices found only 11% of sites engaged in a clinical study fail to recruit any patients. However, it also found studies are taking longer to enroll; actual enrollment timelines exceed planned enrollment timelines 53% of the time. Finding ways to move beyond traditional patient recruitment strategies has become a particular concern in recent years, as sponsors employ global development strategies that require thousands of patients across numerous countries. Yet as trials become more complex, and complicated inclusion/exclusion criteria limits the...

Eye on Forest Laboratories

Forest Laboratories is a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company with a mission statement of “identifying, developing, and delivering products that make a difference in people’s lives,” with an underlying foundation of innovation, integrity, and commitment. Over the past 10 years, Forest has continued to increase its investment in R&D, enhancing its ability to license innovative new products in a wider range of therapeutic fields and earlier in the development cycle. Initial areas of concentration for Forest have been the central nervous and cardiovascular systems...

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