Too Many Trials, Too Few CRAs: Closing The Capacity Gap

By Taylor Davidson, Florence

The clinical trial industry has experienced 5.8% annual growth year over year–but the growth in Clinical Research Associates (CRAs) and research sites isn’t keeping up. 

To accommodate the number of trials predicted in 2030, Florence estimates that Contract Research Organizations (CROs) will collectively need to add 18,000 research sites to their networks. But as they add more sites, CROs will also need to add more CRAs–up to 20,000 more. 

How can we close these capacity gaps, when most sites already have more trials than they can handle and there are ongoing CRA shortages? We must innovate.