ClinStar, a CRO providing clinical research services in Russia and Eastern Europe, discussed the benefits of conducting clinical trials in Russia in an interview with NPR Marketplace health desk reporter Gregory Warner.

Warner reported the clinical trial industry in Russia is growing by 15%. ClinStar president and CEO David Passov said the advantages of clinical trials in Russia is the ability for biopharmaceutical companies to enroll patients three to 20 times faster than in North America and Western Europe.

Passov said, “The clinical trial industry has been well established in North America and Western Europe for the last 25 years or so now. For many who are not familiar with clinical trials and the drug development process, Russia is considered to be an emerging region for clinical trial conduct. By most definitions, however, Russia is not an emerging country for clinical trials but rather a well established country for conducting clinical research.”

“In an era where the costs to develop a drug are greater than $1 billion, and only an estimated one in 5,000 compounds ever make it to market, the benefits of conducting clinical trials in Russia are too great to ignore,” said executive director of business development and marketing Erin King. “By speeding up the patient enrollment process, biopharmaceutical companies are able to shrink the clinical trial timeline and reduce the overall costs to get a drug approved.”