Trio Clinical Research Management, a rare contract research organization (CRO)-staffing company hybrid, was going great guns. The company had a 95 percent client retention rate. It had no debt. Both sides of the business were booming. And owners Betsy Brown and Faye Woolf, friends since the 1980s, were happy as clams.

Despite being named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2006 list of the 100 fastest-growing companies in America, Trio was stuck. There were two issues. Not having a presence outside its Durham, N.C., office, and not offering technology—specifically, electronic data capture (EDC) or drug-safety solutions. The company was missing out on new business.

Love You, But…

“When we’d make bids for projects and were not awarded them, sponsors would say, ‘We love you. You’re amazing. But we want full service, and we also need global. We have to go with someone else,’” recalls Brown.

Brown and Woolf didn’t want to borrow huge sums to expand. Earlier this summer, they sold the majority of their stakes to two equity firms. As part of the deal, Patrick Donnelly, former president and CEO of PRA International, came aboard as Trio’s CEO. His aim: to guide the company and its new equity partners on significant growth through smart acquisitions.

Patrick Donnelly

During Donnelly’s tenure, PRA went public, acquired 10 companies and increased its global operations. He resigned early last year. PRA’s former CFO Matt Bond has also signed on as Trio’s CFO.

The equity companies now in the mix are the Halifax Group, which is based in Washington, D.C., and SV Life Sciences of Boston. Woolf has stepped down as CEO and is now Trio’s president. Brown remains the company’s chief operating officer. The deal became official on June 30.

Casual Call

Together Brown and Woolf had owned 100 percent of the company that they launched in 2003. Now they own less than half of it. (Terms of the deal were not made public.) But they sound like they couldn’t be happier. “We are just so excited,” said Woolf.

The history shows the value of keeping channels open. Brown had been director of monitoring for the CRO ClinTrials, which became Inveresk, which was bought by Kendle. There, she also focused on resourcing/staffing. She later joined Woolf as COO of the Woolf Group, a staffing company Woolf launched to focus on clinical research recruitment. Sold in 1999, the Woolf Group is now SRG Woolf Group.

PRA, meanwhile, had been a valued client of the Woolf Group. When Donnelly moved on from PRA and Woolf started Trio, they stayed in touch. Woolf mentioned to Donnelly that she and Brown were looking for ways to grow, including bringing in an equity partner. “He said, ‘Stop the presses. Let me come down and talk to you,’” Woolf recalls.

No Rush

The plan? To acquire well, and not necessarily right away. “It’s not a time factor. It’s a fit factor,” Brown says, adding that the new leadership will meet this month to sketch out a strategy.

Donnelly, she adds, is currently researching acquisition candidates, with an eye toward “rounding us out completely.” That could mean buying other CROs, EDC vendors, resourcing companies, or possibly firms that do a lot of functional outsourcing, as Trio has been doing since 2004. (Functional outsourcing involves sponsors, usually the big ones, outsourcing entire departments instead of keeping them in house).

Europe Soon

And it will likely mean moving into Europe, sooner rather than later. “We’d love to find a good match CRO in Europe,” said Brown. Could Trio have gone global through strategic partnerships instead? Yes. But Brown and Woolf didn’t want to.

“That would have been a hard step for us to have to take because we don’t control [strategic partners’] culture or their philosophies,” said Brown. “We used to partner with PDS, which was recently acquired. So, we could be partnering with someone who could change into someone else. We know clients think of [CROs with strategic partners] as being hard to manage, since there is more than one player to deal with.”

Solo Operators

For Trio, competition on the CRO side is vast. But competition on the staffing side isn’t, as very few staffing companies focus specifically on the clinical research space. “Most others—like 90 percent of them—go across many other industries,” said Brown. Competitors that focus tightly on the industry, though, are ClinForce and, ironically, SRG Woolf Group.

What sets Trio apart, says Brown, is its relationships with “independents”—long-time clinical research assistants (CRAs) who, instead of moving up the corporate ladder within CROs or drug companies, choose to go freelance. Many of these independents have 12 or more years’ experience as CRAs, as opposed to an in-house CRA, who tends to have an average of about three, says Woolf.

Trio has strong relationships with 400 to 500 independents across the U.S., keeping about 120 of them busy at one time. Yes, independents’ fees are higher, but Trio doesn’t lose out. “We don’t have to spend a lot of money training them,” says Woolf. Another key: minimizing CRA travel by hiring more experienced local or regional people whenever possible.

Travel Minimization

“Travel takes so much longer now, with airlines cutting back flights and flights being canceled so often,” Brown said. “Delays like that can cost a lot of money if you’re paying someone by the hour.”

Trio, which has about 70 employees, has clients of all sizes. But it does best with smaller sponsors. “Our sweet spot is small to mid-size biotech and pharma,” says Brown. “They don’t have the depth of experience [of larger companies] and they need more. Plus, it’s easier to build strong one-on-one relationships with them.”

The CRO half of Trio has done about 30 trials across many therapeutic areas. The company has mostly done Phase I and II work, but expects bigger trials with their expansion. Throw in the staffing and functional outsourcing components, and Trio has had a hand in about 500 trials.

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