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European Pharmaceutical Contractor
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Traditionally, the drug industry has been immune to the vagaries of international stock market fluctuations. As I write this letter this immunity is beginning to be removed with 'scandals' depressing share values in both medium-sized companies such as Galen and Elan as well as the 'bellweather' giants such as Merck. That tradition should be usurped in this way is not good news for the CRO industry, any more than it is good news for the companies' shareholders. Pharma companies have always been conservative, even if their science was innovative. Stock price uncertainty will surely breed more conservatism and a reluctance to conduct research out-of-house, lest the company lose control. In just the same way as mega mergers put projects on hold or at risk, so the falling stock prices will tend to have the same effect.
But mega mergers of the type just announced between Pfizer and Pharmacia may not be the way to go. Productivity and efficiency no longer seem to be necessarily related to size, big organisations may become inefficient, if not impossible, to manage. This theme is developed by John Morris of KPMG who believes that there is likely to be a slow down in M&A activity in the near future.
However, M&A is seen as a way of achieving the holy grail of global reach not only in development but also in sales. Ben Coppin at Envisional discusses combined Internet sales and promotion of prescription products as a globalisation route. Although, as he points out, this may only be an acceptable practice if the Internet is somewhat regulated - how this is to be done will remain a challenge.
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Industry Events |
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4th Annual Patient Recruitment and Retention in Clinical Trials
13-15 October 2008, Amsterdam
Patient recruitment
is now consuming thirty percent of clinical trial time - more time than any
other clinical trial activity - and almost half of all trial delays result from
patient recruitment problems.
As the
recruiting culture becomes more sophisticated and the forces affecting patient
enrollment grow more numerous and complex, pharmaceutical companies are
striving to discover new strategies to facilitate enrollment in clinical
trials.
With
increasing industry pressure to develop, test and market greater numbers of new
drugs faster, pharmaceutical companies need to perform clinical trials as
quickly as possible. Inefficient patient recruitment processes is a formidable
barrier to pharmaceutical companies' success in launching new products.
Improving the patient recruitment process is imperative to avoid wasted
investments and eliminate costly delays in bringing new drugs to market --
today and even more so in the not-so-distant future. Improved patient
recruitment presents one of the largest opportunities for pharmaceutical
companies to eliminate delays in clinical trials, thereby making it possible to
reduce time to market. With patent time limits and large overheads
meaning that any delays in the development timeline can be disastrous, a good
understanding of how to successfully recruit patients for trials is vital for
any company looking to succeed.
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