Contract Support and Technical Service Providers Expected to Play a Growing Role in Drug Development, According to Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2012) - Drug sponsors and their contract service providers are using more sophisticated, integrated, and coordinated relationship structures to deliver greater speed and efficiency, a trend that is expected to accelerate, according to a panel of leaders from the research-based drug industry recently convened by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

"Sponsors are adopting relationships with their technical and support service providers much the same way they have established strategic, integrated alliances with contract clinical research service providers," said Ken Getz, assistant professor at Tufts CSDD. "These services, once considered an afterthought, are increasingly viewed as integral to driving better project planning and higher levels of performance and efficiency."

The adoption of these relationships, he said, is due in part to the growing numbers of increasingly complex, global clinical trials that require drug development sponsors to manage ever-more diverse combinations of contract technical and support services, such as clinical supplies, testing, and cardiac safety assessments.

In addition to speeding up and lowering the cost of clinical trials, technical service providers can help identify drug failures early on, enabling drug developers to redirect scarce resources to more promising projects, roundtable participants said.

Other key points made at the panel discussion, summarized in the October Tufts CSDD R&D Management Report, released today, included the following:

• The global market for global pharmaceutical R&D outsourcing exceeds $100 billion, more than five times the level estimated by analysts in the financial community, a recent Tufts CSDD study found.
  
  
• Managing the supply chains to keep trials on track has emerged as a primary success factor in drug development. With external service providers increasingly handling key components of supply chains, sponsor and CROs are challenged to efficiently guide those relationships without duplicating management.
  
  

SCHEDULED TUFTS CSDD EXECUTIVE FORUM ROUNDTABLES

Upcoming Tufts CSDD Executive Forum Roundtable meetings will focus on the following topics:

Nov. 1, 2012 - Development Strategies for Companion Diagnostics
Feb. 21, 2013 - Managing Protocol Design to Improve Clinical Study Efficiency
May 16, 2013 - Partnerships, Alliances, Consortia, and Other Risk-Sharing Collaborations

ABOUT THE TUFTS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DRUG DEVELOPMENT

The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (http://csdd.tufts.edu) at Tufts University provides strategic information to help drug developers, regulators, and policy makers improve the quality and efficiency of pharmaceutical development, review, and utilization. Tufts CSDD, based in Boston, conducts a wide range of in-depth analyses on pharmaceutical issues and hosts symposia, workshops, and public forums, and publishes Tufts CSDD Impact Reports, a bi-monthly newsletter providing analysis and insight into critical drug development issues.