The global CRO market is likely to hit $23.6 billion this year, according to Industry Standard Research, an all-time high that will only be followed by faster growth. The industry's growth rate has hovered around 5.5% over the past few years, ISR says, but that's likely to jump to 7.9% from 2014 to 2018 as the world's largest CROs deepen their market penetration. More