Monday, June 1, 2009

Contract Research Organizations or CROs

If you're interested in a career in clinical research that's outside of academia, you may want to start with a CRO. There are many Contract Research Organizations (CROs) that work on various types of research projects for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (and even for the government). You often find these companies scattered throughout the country (and all over the world). Why would you want to work in a CRO? To gain exposure to a wide variety of therapeutics. Also, working in a CRO can also be a springboard to a career in pharma/biotech.

You may have heard of some of these companies:
  • ACORN
  • Advanced Biologics
  • Averion
  • Clinical Research Consulting
  • MDCI
  • MDS Pharma Services
  • PPD (Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. - not the Tuberculosis skin test)
  • RCRI
  • Synteract
  • And many more
CROs also also called Clinical Research Organizations (CROs). According to Wikipedia, "Services offered by CROs include: product development, formulation and manufacturing; clinical trial management (preclinical through phase IV); clinical, medical and safety monitoring; preclinical, toxicology, and clinical laboratory services for processing trial samples; data management, biostatistics and medical writing services for preparation of an FDA New Drug Application (NDA), Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), or Biologics License Application (BLA); regulatory affairs support; and many other complementary services."

2 comments:

  1. I am a clinical research coordinator for 4 years and I like to do monitoring as CRA or drug safety associate. How do get into the industry? I've been applying and no calls yet. How can I get training or experience if they don't hire? Need advice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cristina, there's a good chance that you need to revise your CV. That's probably why you're not getting any calls. If you have the experience and the qualifications to work in a CRO, then you need to have a solid CV that will give you a competitive advantage.

    ReplyDelete