FDA Focus: How clinical research organizations communicated pharma into resurgence

In-house research and development departments stifle innovation. That’s the conclusion of internationally recognized expert, Professor Michael Mol of Warwick Business School, and Professor Olivier Bertrand, associate professor of strategy at SKEMA Business School. Professors Mol and Bertrand analyzed 6,015 French commercial enterprises, and a database comprised of massive amounts of activity generated by these businesses over a five-year period.

This is the principle powering and increasing the massive growth of clinical research organizations (CROs), even in the face of the often restrictive pharmacovigilance regulatory framework. Despite the perceived positive effect on the bottom line, biopharma companies are benefiting from a happy accident known affectionately as ‘cognitive distance’—the effect whereby research and development, as well as innovation, both surge as a result of outsourcing.

A CRO (Clinical Research Organization or Contract Research Organization) is the outsourced research and compliance department for many pharmaceutical and medical companies. CROs do research on a contract-basis, usually clinical study or trials, and provide the results – oftentimes including analysis – to the sponsoring company.