Tuesday, May 5, 2015

CROs and what it’s like working for them

In a simple frame of mind, lab based careers can be split up into options like academic research or work in industrial sector. Either of the two options, particularly the second one can encompasses a broad spectrum of roles and goals. Working in the industry does not mean you have to be employees of Glaxo or Pfizer. You can alternately work for Contract Research organizations that take part in a host of phase-1 clinical trials according to Elisabeth Allen.

Allen designs phase-1 clinical research for a living. The contract research organization she works for, Quintiles, partners with big pharma companies to hasten up the drug development process. In her estimate, a typical drug costs about nine hundred pounds to go through the developmental phases which can take up to 10-12 years. With sky rocketing costs and more stringent regulations, chunks of developmental work is increasingly being outsourced to contractors. This is where the role of CROs comes into play.


A CRO is an independent research organization that steps into the developmental process after a pharma company makes the discovery of a new molecule that holds promise. Some CROs are Quintiles, Covance, Icon, and HMR. Typically, it’s a CRO that organizes research into the effect of the new molecule on humans. In most cases, a CRO will organize and conduct clinical trials to test the effects of the new molecule on humans. 

As independent entities they facilitate an objective assessment of the new drug in clinical setting and because they have liaison with pharma companies, they offer a much broader scope of study of the effects of the drug on human subjects. If the pharma companies had themselves conducted these trials, it would have been very limited in scope because the limitations imposed by limited functionality of these companies. Elisabeth Allen describes her role as highly rewarding and playing a key part in improving the lives of many people for whom the new drug is researched into existence. Working for an Indian CRO is a job of high responsibility as it involves the lives of thousands of people.  

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