Sponsors question variations in overhead rates

Few issues provoke more interest in clinical trial grant negotiations than the contract’s overhead rate. The range in overhead rates charged among investigative sites can leave sponsors baffled; while some independent physician-run sites ask for no overhead at all, a few top academic institutions request up to 70%. Historically, sponsor companies have paid requested overhead rates without question. Yet as sponsors have looked for ways to...

Oncology, CNS lead therapeutic areas of opportunity

The drug pipeline is robust. Fat, some might even say. According to numbers from Pharmaprojects, which observes and analyzes drug research and development, 8,617 drugs were in development (from pre-clinical to phase III) in 2010. That number has risen steadily since 1998, wth the biggest spike seen between 2006 and 2008, when the number of drugs in development shot up from 6,502 to 8,027. A large portion of those R&D efforts has fallen consistently into four categories: oncology, central nervous system...

Eye On Celgene

Celgene’s stated mission is to provide solutions for managing complex human disease, particularly in the areas of cancer and inflammatory diseases, by “developing innovative oral therapies that address the source of disease, not just the symptoms.” Its therapeutic agents include drugs and small molecules, cell-based therapies, notably immunomodulatory agents, cell signaling...

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