Disrupting Clinical Operations With CRO Strategic Partnerships

By Craig Morgan, Oracle Health Sciences

In response to tighter margins, globalization and increasing regulatory complexity, sponsors have been embracing an outsourcing model using Contract Research Organizations (CROs) to conduct scientific services for all phases of clinical research.

A primary motivator driving this trend is the expected benefits to be gained from external specialization, allowing drug makers to focus on core competencies. The pace of scientific discovery requires drug companies to utilize cutting-edge techniques and subject expertise across a vast breadth of therapeutic specialties. Outsourcing provides this access with none of the costly in-house investment. Beyond offering market agility and introducing fair market price efficiencies, strategic outsourcing also aims to shorten the time to market entry and with it recoupment of R&D expenditure for sponsors. Sponsors must continuously fight an uphill battle to minimize complexity, streamline business processes and workflows, ensure compliance and increase efficiencies at every level. Cue the rise of cloud-based technology solutions.