A strategic partnership is a long-term commitment between two organizations to achieve specific objectives my maximizing the effectives of each participant’s resources. Seventy three percent of emerging pharma companies reported that they are interested or very interested in becoming involved in a strategic partnership with a CRO in the next 12 to 18 months.
History of Success & Financial Stability (both at 31%)
Operational, Methodological and therapeutic experience (28%)
Adaptability (27%)
Range of Service Offerings (23%)
Cost Savings (17%)
The reported most important qualities of a provider from the customer’s perspective are:
A CRO’s reputation
Responsiveness
Good Communication
Understanding Customer’s Requirement
Cultural Fit
Biggest sources of dissatisfaction from the customers’ point-of-view stemmed from unexpected charges on the bill, timeliness of resolving issues and overall product quality.
Most common metrics CROs use to measure performance are quality and accuracy (%50), followed by safety (44%), technical expertise (44%), cost-effectiveness (42%) and on-time delivery (41%).
Size of the CRO is not much of a concern except for smaller companies that worry their projects will receive much less attention than the CRO’s strategic partnerships.
For big Pharma, the lowest percentage of projects went to tactical providers*(23%), and nearly half went to preferred providers**, rather than strategic partnerships*** (30%)
*primary focus is to meet the particular development needs of individual drugs as then=y move through the development continuum. Tactical service providers offer operational cost benefits but are not designed to drive competitive advantage or shareholder value
**A group of carefully selected providers that have been thoroughly evaluated through due diligence. These relationships frequently offer shorter setup times and higher quality deliverables because the CMOs are thoroughly versed in the specification of the sponsor
*** A long term, win-win commitment between two organizations for the purpose of achieving specific business objectives by maximizing the effectiveness of each participant’s resources
Reference: The data discussed below was pulled from the Nice Insight 2015 industry survey of emerging pharma buyer groups.