A recent survey by Worldwide Clinical Trials reveals that 62% of respondents are more likely to engage a CRO partner for clinical research than they were five years ago, demonstrating the increasingly vital role that CROs are playing in modern drug development, and the importance of partnering with a CRO that offers medical and scientific expertise.

Conducted at DIA 2016, held June 26-30, 2016, in Philadelphia, Pa., the survey gauged the opinions of nearly 300 drug development leaders and executives from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies who visited the Worldwide booth during the DIA meeting.

“As one of the industry’s leading events, we saw DIA as an opportunity to gather input from leaders in the industry—to discover what is important to sponsors, including potential barriers to drug development, areas where they are looking for CRO innovation, and key factors they consider when selecting a CRO partner,” said Peter Benton, president and COO at Worldwide Clinical Trials.

In response to a question about the impact of innovative approaches from a CRO, almost a third (29%) of respondents said that innovation in overall trial management would have the greatest impact on clinical development, with just over a quarter (26%) saying that innovation in patient recruitment and retention would have the second biggest impact.

When considering barriers to a new drug development, those surveyed by Worldwide selected the cost of discovery research and clinical development, regulatory guidance and the risk associated with the clinical development process as the most critical issues. In terms of choosing the perfect CRO partner, respondents listed the capability for the CRO to deliver high quality data as the most important factor (83%), closely followed by the ability for the CRO to deliver on time (76%) and within budget (68%). Interestingly, the findings demonstrate little variation in when respondents are likely engage with a CRO partner, with later phase investigations (phase II to phase III) narrowly ranking the highest, over earlier phase investigations.

“The survey results confirm our focus at Worldwide, where we deliver a strategic balance of science, medicine and operations, including effective planning and risk management, open and ongoing communication, and frequent measurement and reporting. This ensures that we can achieve successful trial execution for our research partners,” said Benton.