Clinical Resource Profiles – Standardization & Benchmarking As An Outcome Of Strategic Insourcing

By Mathini Ilancheran, principal analyst, R&D, Beroe Inc.

Every Large Pharmaceutical company has begun to insource resources in the form of FTEs, leading to an emergence of new innovative outsourcing delivery model called ‘Strategic Insourcing’. Under this model, the pharma takes onboard resources in the form of FTEs from a CRO for a specified project to its in-house facility for a given contract length, which varies between 3 – 12 months and sometimes even longer. The penetration rate for this delivery model ranges between 5 – 25%, depending on the clinical category. 

The increasing use of this delivery model has increased the Rfx process between Pharma and CRO for obtaining contract rates on clinical job roles, compared to the previous traditional model of obtaining rates from Staffing companies. This process creates a circumstance where every supplier gives their internal job description for a particular job role with their respective contract rate. The same from several suppliers’ results in discrepancy in the data received with multiple job description and varying rates, hence making the negotiation process with the suppliers difficult. In order to overcome this problem, there is a requirement for Pharma to develop generic benchmark resource profiles and understand market rates across clinical departments where insourcing percentage is high.