In a hurry to dramatically increase enrollment for a trial? Have traditional methods lost their effectiveness? Then consider a custom DVD for principal investigators and other research staff. It will get them more invested in what you’re doing and simultaneously provide compelling instruction. Instead of the usual monotonous production featuring…more...

If clinical trial data is music, both fluid and potentially dissonant, Peg Regan of PharmaPros is a sort of symphony conductor. She’s the firm’s president and CEO—and has seen plenty of instruments that can prove tricky to coordinate. The ability to combine streams of clinical data remains something that is…more...

The three founders of Integrium didn’t set out to start a contract research organization (CRO). It just ... happened. It was the mid-1990s. David Smith, Joel Neutel and Michael Weber were southern California-based clinical investigators. In the course of conducting their research at the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center,…more...

Yes, investigator relationship management (IRM) efforts are sweeping through pharmaceutical companies’ headquarters these days, causing all manner of meetings over how to make clinical investigators happy and keep them bringing in quality data. But what of the contract research organization (CRO)? How does it fit into this equation? Because if…more...

Contract research organization the Almac Group will spend $100 million on a new headquarters in Lower Salford Township, Pennsylvania. The consolidation of two existing facilities will produce 262 new jobs and create a campus-like environment similar to one the company already has at its headquarters in Northern Ireland. “It’s a…more...

Technology executives in the clinical trial realm often predict consolidation. Translation: smaller companies will die. There are examples of that—CB Technologies or Ninaza. But not dozens. On the other hand, Target Health is a thriving example of a more complex trend. That would be the blurring of the formerly sharp…more...

The October 4, 2007, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is not online for free; we can’t link to it. But it contains a discussion of the booming contract research organization (CRO) industry. The CRO industry’s growth is a forehead-smacking surprise to the journal, which says the…more...

Happens every day. Study participants fail to show up at the clinical site for blood draws. Or they go on vacation for two months, making it impossible to track them. Or maybe they’re too sick to get to the site. Sponsors who are weary of such complications might want to…more...

United BioSource (UBC) has been built one acquisition at a time from a 9-figure investment war chest. The company provides clinical trial research services, but is not a contract research organization (CRO) in any traditional sense. It counts some CROs as customers and calls itself a specialty services organization. With…more...

Timothy Forsey, former head of the Biologicals and the Biotechnology Unit for The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in England, just accepted a position at contract research organization (CRO) Kendle International providing regulatory affairs guidance to the company’s biotechnology customers. Based in Kendle’s Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, office, Forsey…more...