CRO

Nice Insight looks at outsourcing trends from drug developer POV

When FierceCRO went to DIA 2012 last week in Philadelphia, we reported on the trends top CRO executives expect to see in the industry over the next few years. Now, Nice Insight has released its own study showing what drug developers hope to do with their CRO and CMO partners, broken down by drug development phases and analytical testing.

Nice Insight spent 18 months following developers--classified into four categories; Big Pharma and biotech, emerging biotech, specialty pharma and emerging pharma--learning that they hope to engage more with contractors. When it comes to the Phase I portion of a trial, 50% of more than 2,400 respondents said they would work more with contractors, including 57% of respondents from Big Pharma and biotech. The same can be said for Phase II and Phase III testing; 42% and 35% of total respondents said they would do that as well, respectively. The data reflects the desire of contractors and pharma companies to work together earlier in a trial.

And what about interaction, post-launch? That may be declining, as the study shows. Fewer than one-third of respondents said they planned to do so. Among emerging biotech players, only 14% said they would interact at that stage, compared to 17% of the emerging biotech companies in the last quarter. 

When it comes to analytical testing, more pharma companies plan to outsource more of those duties, as estimated spending increased to $533 million, up from $515 million previously. The industry has a continued focus on pursuing strategic partnerships, but pharma companies may be more inclined to stay in control of the R&D work on novel drugs. As we've seen in China and other places, intellectual property security problems are fresh on the minds of drug developers that don't want to see their hard work fall into the wrong hands.

- read about the study from PharmaPro