Investigator Payments – A Critical Component In Bayer's Sponsor Of Choice Strategy

Year after year, slow and unpredictable investigator payments continue to be a top complaint from clinical study sites. For this reason, Bayer initiated a project called Automated Site Payment Invoice Resolution (ASPIREs), through which Bayer realized two ambitious goals of optimizing the clinical trial site payment process and enabling site management teams to focus more on value-added activities. The project kicked off in 2019 with a pilot in the United States, followed by a roll out in six additional countries. As of today, Bayer has rolled out ASPIREs into 18 countries across the globe.

The ASPIREs project produced numerous benefits for Bayer and partner sites, which include:

• Improved site satisfaction through timely, accurate payments and reduced disputes
• Increased transparency through real-time invoicing and site payment status reporting
• Reduced administrative burden through automated third-party services and dashboards
• Reduced time to market through better site management efficiencies.

The first step in the ASPIREs project was an engagement with EY consultants to assess Bayer’s current-state payment processes in the US. Over a three-month period, processes were mapped from budget creation through reporting to identify key challenges and opportunities. Each step and every team member were tracked. The results confirmed a high degree of inefficiency and a startling “spider-web” of touchpoints (FIGURE 1).