Slow to negative growth in select emerging markets

A few years ago, Latin America and India were considered among the most promising emerging markets for conducting industry-sponsored clinical trials. Dramatic increases were predicted for both regions, and investigative sites anticipated an influx of new work. Unfortunately, growth in these markets has fallen far short of expectations. The number of industry-sponsored global phase I-IV trials in India has dropped 22.4% annually between 2010 and 2014, according to the 2015/2016 Parexel Biopharmaceutical R&D Statistical Sourcebook’s analysis of the ClinicalTrials.gov database.

CROs juggle proprietary and commercial systems

Third-party vendors have come to dominate the clinical trial technology sector, which was led by CROs a decade ago. At the same time, many large CROs continue to invest in technology solutions to differentiate their services and offer greater efficiencies in clinical development processes. The eClinical solutions market, which includes electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical trial management systems (CTMS), could generate total global sales of $5 billion by 2018, representing a five-year annual growth rate of 13.5%, according to a recent report from global market research company MarketsandMarkets. Yet much of the growth in clinical trial technologies is expected to come from niche providers rather than in-house systems developed by CROs.

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