The clinical trials arena is seeing dramatic changes as development moves from blockbusters to more potent and more personalised drugs. As the industry remodels itself to cope with niche products and reduced reimbursement, it is seeking more global and cheaper markets for R&D and trials.
Meanwhile, the Internet has given a voice to the consumer and is driving initiatives for more patient-centric healthcare. A few high profile court cases have also put pharma companies in the spotlight for hiding or ignoring negative trial results that would have reduced a drug’s marketability. This is leading to a shake-up of current clinical trials regulations, as governments look to streamline legislation to improve the speed and lower the cost of innovation but also to make trials more open and results more widely disseminated to the public.
The value of the global pharma clinical trial services market will reach US$30.6bn in 2015, according to Visiongain’s Clinical Trial Services: World Market 2013–2023 report.1 Between 2011 and 2017, the market will increase with a high single digit CAGR and demand for late-phase trial services will drive growth, it says. Throughout the 10-year forecast period, late-stage trials will account for the greatest proportion of revenues for clinical research organisations (CROs).
Highlighting future changes, Visiongain analyst Richard Lang said: ‘In the past decade, demand for outsourced clinical trial services grew rapidly as pharma pipelines broadened and trials became increasingly large and complex. Drug developers built up large, complex networks of service providers, which they are now seeking to simplify. They are looking to form strategic partnerships with a select few CROs covering long-term development projects.
‘CROs must expand to offer a one-stop shop for pharmaceutical clients to take advantage of these strategic partnerships. They will look to new technology, including e-clinical tools, to improve their service offerings, as well as expanding into emerging markets.’
Many leading CROs established bases in BRIC nations in the past ten years. In this decade, growth for these CROs will be focused on building upon the service portfolio in these markets, as well as entering emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, said Lang.
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