Mayo Clinic can't compete, axes clinical trial unit

The Mayo Clinic is getting out of the business of conducting clinical trials for drug developers, citing a low-cost environment that has made the world renowned organization uncompetitive.

Fifty-seven of the 100 people working for the Mayo Clinical Trial Services unit will be affected in the near or short term, though Mayo said that it expects to move most of the personnel to other jobs in their organization. In the meantime, it's stopped taking new business and will wrap the trials underway. Most will be completed by the end of 2010.

"Analysis of Mayo Clinical Trial Services showed that its business model for clinical trials is not competitive in a clinical-trials marketplace driven by low-cost, routine clinical trials," the Mayo Clinic said in a statement. "The assessment also concluded that the clinical trials unit would see substantial financial losses into the foreseeable future."

- read the report from St. Paul Business Journal

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