2015 Predictions for Clinical R&D

Comprehend CEO Rick Morrison to shares his thoughts on 2015 predictions for clinical R&D.

1) Beyond innovation, smaller sponsors will bring more drugs to market – Gone are the days when big pharma were the sole drivers of innovation and blockbuster drugs. But the days of big pharmas buying smaller biotechs to enhance their pipelines are also dwindling. More and more of these smaller and mid-sized sponsors will stay lean and nimble and focused on what they do best – innovative R&D based on better, safer, faster trials – by leveraging top specialized CROs, technology vendors and sales and marketing organizations. M&A will continue, but the stakes will be higher as these small and mid-size pharmas gain steam.

2) The CRO “hierarchy” will flip – The CRO market is due for a significant shake up. More and more sponsors need and are demanding access to their data along the course of their trials, and the CROs that are able to evolve with the times will be the ones who will win. The repackaging or retooling of existing services won’t cut it as drug and device developers are looking for outsourcing partners that support new ways of bring treatment to market. As a result, today's market leaders are at risk of falling to competitors who are more specialized and open to new approaches to clinical development.

3) Clinical data collection becomes commoditized – When it comes to EDC being viewed as a static repository, we are basically already there. Adding EDC into the mix 10-12 years ago only digitized an already broken process. In the year ahead, we’ll see more sponsors focused on reinventing clinical development, which means investment in better analytics and access to data to enable key approaches like risk-based monitoring, adaptive trials, cross-study insights and identifying potential threats to data/trial integrity.