The Soft Science Of Choosing A CRO

By Jacquie Mardell

Small CROs have had a harder time competing in recent years against the worldwide giants of the field — Quintiles, Covance, PPD, Charles River, ICON, to name a few — in large part because the scary financial environment has prompted pharma and biotech executives to play the safer hand of choosing a large provider to handle their clinical services needs, even when a smaller vendor offers the same services at a competitive price. Sometimes this safe choice works out well, after all, these companies stay in business for a reason, but sometimes those same stakeholders end up dissatisfied with their CRO options and resort to shopping elsewhere next time they have a clinical project to award. So how does the clinical team leader go beyond the basics of price, timeline, and quality to find a CRO that will not only provide the high quality study results the sponsor needs, but also a satisfactory experience that keeps the leader coming back? Relationship building, problem-solving, flexibility, and highly qualified team members are the soft yet crucial factors to look for in forging a lasting, successful relationship between a sponsor and a clinical service provider.