Clinical trials moving to emerging countries

International pharmaceutical companies are increasingly out-sourcing clinical trials to countries in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, in an attempt to save time, money, and resources, according to a new report from GBI Research.

The study notes that every drug that fails to make it through clinical testing represents a financial loss. So with squeezed Research and Development budgets, pharmaceutical companies are entering into risk-sharing agreements with Contract Research Organizations (CROs) in emerging nations for the management of clinical trials.

Drug discovery companies such as Advinus, WuXi AppTec, and Aurigene have all delivered their targets ahead of schedule and helped the big pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their drug research at considerably lower costs.

As more pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of CROs, the total number of clinical trials conducted in the United States has fallen from 60% of the global sum in 2002 to 40% in 2010, the report says. In 2010, Europe carried out 25% of all clinical trials, while East Asia accounted for 10%. Canada, the Middle East, South America, and India followed with 6.1%, 4%, 3%, and 2.5%, respectively.