Contract research organizations (CROs) provide clinical trial and other research support services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries as well as government institutions, foundations and universities.
The International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) defines a CRO as "A person or an organization (commercial, academic or other) contracted by the sponsor to perform one or more of a sponsors' trial related duties and functions."
Although a trial sponsor may transfer all trial functions to a third-party CRO, the sponsor remains responsible for the integrity of the trial data.
Types of Services provided include:
Project management
Database design & build
Data entry & validation
Clinical trial data management
Dispensing Services
Quality and metric reporting
Statistical analysis plans and reports
Validation programming
Safety and efficacy summaries
Final study report
For an industry that barely existed a decade ago, the CRO sector is performing very well compared to other industries. Analysts suggest the industry is growing from 4 percent to 12 percent annually.
In 2012, the largest CROs were Quintiles, Parexel, Covance, Pharmaceutical Product Development, Icon, INC Research and inVentiv Health Clinical, according to Industry Standard Research. The top 10 CROs control over 50 percent of the market.
Who is our Sector Audience?
Project Managers
Investigators
Regulatory Staff
Clinical Staff (Nurses, Clinical Technologists and Pharmacists)
External Monitors/External Clinical Research Associates
Post Clinical Services (Biostatistics/Data Managements and Medical Writing
What are the Projects to be focused on for the period 2015 – 2016?
Actively working towards shortening of Timelines for Approval of Bioequivalence Studies at MCC to 4 weeks by establishing communication and follow-up strategies to ensure optimal collaboration in this regard
Clinical Trials in Paediatrics – Summary of Guidelines
Increasing the numbers of people attending the annual SACRA Meetings in Bloemfontein by extensive and pro-active advertisement and knowledgeable speakers and “hot” topics to be presented.
To maintain and grow the current membership and the quarterly meeting attendance in Cape Town. Currently we have an attendance of 30 – 40 members per meeting. To encourage active member participation through projects such as the book donation drive and to host workshops such as the Dilicom Informed consent workshop. To also prepare for succession planning by growing CT involvement in meeting preparations.