CRO performance tracking tool sets 'realistic expectations'
“Outsourcing is on the minds of many, but tracking the performance of CROs has been difficult,” Scott Martin, Principal at KMR Group, a biopharmaceutical R&D performance analytics company, told us. “Both sponsors and CROs want to know the differences in performance when trials are conducted by CROs, but having one central place to compare the performance was not available.”
As Outsourcing-Pharma.com previously reported, sponsors are more concerned about CRO’s efficiency than margins.
The new tool, CRO Metrix, is an online clinical trial performance application which contains trial performance, recruitment, and site metrics data from more than 25,000 global clinical trials.
According to Martin, the tool offers side by side performance of sponsor conducted trials and CRO conducted trials for each step in the trial process. “The data can be subdivided by indication, region and country to name a few,” he explained.
“By setting realistic expectations, both sponsors and CROs can inform their trial plans and assist their dialogue,” said Martin. “CROs will know the sponsor conducted and CRO conducted benchmarks, and identify opportunities for improvement.’
Additionally, Martin said that the application gives sponsors a better understanding of the timelines provided by CROs. The tool also provides data to help inform which trial processes may be impacted and how if conducted internally or outsourced.
