A Contract Research Organisation, more commonly referred to with the acronym “CRO” is an outsourced organisation working in the medical line of business that functions as an ancillary service (on a contract basis) that provides companies who are working in the medical industry i.e. pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical devices with the necessary support that is designated to reduce costs and manage clinical trials that will ease new medicines and drugs’ development and entry to the drug market.
Understanding How Contract Research Organisations Work
Due to the current global pandemic, there has been a major spike of demands in biopharmaceuticals and medical equipment manufacturing that in subsequent caused a steady growth phenomenon within the contract research organisations market. It is projected to reach a staggering number of $64.4 billion by 2027.
As a result, more and more pharmaceutical companies around the world are increasingly outsourcing critical functions such as manufacturing and research which has led to a massive surge in the hiring of CROs.
CROs are mostly involved in all aspects of the drug or device development process, from initial discovery to product launching. These organisations perform intricate clinical trials in developing new medicines and drugs that is both safe to consume and in compliance to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Pharmaceutical companies prefer the use of these CROs due to the cost saving aspect and the almost absence of training required as most of the workers are experts with accumulated years of experience with specialized knowledge and expertise that are able to perform efficiently.
How Does Their Work Affect Our Well-Being?
To exemplify, hypothetically speaking Pfizer Australia intends to launch a new drug that will better combat the virus yet it is severely understaffed and they have no time to train new hires, this is where CRO came into play, let’s say contract research organisation australia receives the request and is tasked to assist in the vaccine formulation of a compound that might work on patients. Of course, they will have to work closely and share resources with Pfizer Australia not to mention access to infected patients.
During the clinical trials, contract research organisation australia conducts various testing to understand how the body reacts to the drug and whether the drug produces side effects, once the data has been collected, Pfizer Australia will review and approve it should it be deemed a success, then lastly they will prepare a study report to secure the FDA’s approval of the drug.
Once we have their approval, the drug is launched to the market for us to utilize in fighting COVID-19. Even though the hard part is over, the CRO will continue to evaluate and monitor the safety and efficacy of the drug as it is part of their responsibility.
However, some CROs may have different services provided and they might choose to specialize only on statistical analytics, data collection and management, and quality assurance and auditing for the company. Nevertheless, we owe our thanks to the company and CROs around the world for their part in developing new medicine and drugs to combat illness and disease increase our quality of life.