September 2000 – The CenterWatch Monthly : Volume 7, Issue 9, September 2000

CROs Hand Poor Grades to Sponsors

Despite a growing need for sponsors to outsource their clinical projects, pharmaceutical companies are failing to manage effective relationships with CROs.

A variety of practices, including preferred provider agreements, the RFP process, project team management approaches and the setting of project timelines, are largely facilitating adversarial, unproductive and inefficient collaborations.

A Bitter Pill for SMOs

The acquisition market for independent sites has dried up. Although select SMOs are looking to aggressively expand, this expansion will likely come from consolidation of existing and established site management networks.

Sites acquired by SMOs have had mixed experiences -- particularly the largest and most experienced ones. This suggests yet another challenge SMOs face as they strive to build primary demand for their services.

CentreStage Europe: Early Signs of a Market Shifting Toward For-Profit European Investigators

According to Pharmaprojects, as many as 10,000 projects will be in the worldwide pharmaceutical R&D pipeline within three years. This represents a 50% increase over the number of projects in discovery through clinical development today. This increase will drive the need for more patients, for more investigators and for much higher levels of development spending.

Eye On: Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer or colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death today. It is the third most common cancer in men and the second most common cancer found in women. CenterWatch has identified 34 drugs in phase I-III development for colorectal cancer. Approximately $183.8 million is spent annually to study the effects of these treatments on colorectal cancer.

• Month in Review
• Opportunities Underway
• TrialWatch