Optimizing Outsourcing Options for Small Sponsors

What can small sponsors do to secure the outsourcing resources they need as large CROs form strategic alliances with Big Pharma?

Partenships between large pharmaceutical companies and large CROs have become the norm.  The advantages for sponsor companies include shared risk, knowledge transfer, dedicated resources, shorter time to market, and the ability to implement the massive data integration that clinical development requires.  Strategic alliances are arguably as advantageous for their outsourcing partners, providing a steady pipeline of work that’s larger in scope and longer in duration than is typical under traditional arrangements.

Strategic Partnerships in Big Pharma: Implications for Small and Mid-sized Sponsors

Traditionally, large biopharmaceutical companies have outsourced clinical study responsibilities to a wide variety of external vendors, distributing the work across many service providers.  For their part, large CROs have routinely provided services to both large and small biopharmaceutical companies to keep their top-notch resources utilized to capacity and add to their bottom line.

Over the past several years, large sponsors and CROs have been trading in these transactional, fee-for-service business relationships for longer-term, tightly-integrated strategic partnerships.  And the trend is only accelerating.