Articles by Mathini Ilancheran

  1. Human Biological Samples Sourcing: An Overview 11/12/2015

    Human Biological Samples (HBS) are collected during a biopsy or surgery to diagnose the patient and are preserved for later use by researchers to study the disease progression to bring about potential benefits to the patient community. Despite the varying regulations, HBS collection and biobanking has evolved throughout the years. This whitepaper discusses the trends, supplier landscape, and segmentation by providing visibility to the HBS market and the benefits of engaging with a commercial vs. public biobank.

  2. Understanding Key Early Phase Clinical Trial Cost Drivers 5/19/2015

    Pharmaceutical companies have been implementing intensive cost–saving efforts in the recent years through mergers, reducing overheads, and trimming down of entire business units for efficiency. These efforts have increased the need to outsource services to external vendors throughout the R&D value chain. The early phase clinical trial market in 2014 saw an approximate outsourcing rate of 56 percent with most of the patient studies being externalized to both global and specialist CROs. As cost efficiency is the main focus for pharma, it is important to understand the cost behavior of outsourcing services.

  3. Investigator Payments – Channels, Cycle Time and Benchmarks 2/26/2015

    Considering the fair market value for investigator payments per trial costs is crucial in order to avoid higher payment which may result in financial strain on the sponsor. 

  4. Clinical Resource Profiles – Standardization & Benchmarking As An Outcome Of Strategic Insourcing 10/30/2014

    Non-standardization of resource profiles across clinical departments, before running any Rfx process to obtain contract rates from suppliers creates data discrepancy with multiple contract rates from numerous suppliers. On negotiation, supplier’s claim their resource has additional skills and possesses more experience than others. Lack of standardized and benchmarked resource profile internally does not allow comparison of quotes received, hence weakening the negotiation process. This is an ongoing problem that pharmaceutical companies are facing and there is need to create standards for each clinical department. Additionally, benchmarking market rates for each of the standardized resource profile and understanding utilisation rate for the resources is important as it acts as the main lever during the entire process. 

    This whitepaper will explore the Outsourced CRO market, Need for standardization & benchmarking market rates and case study of Clinical resource contract rates.