Tips on Hiring Contract Research Organisations

Contract Research Organisations or “CRO” for short, is an outsourced service that is specialized in the medical industry for performing clinical trials for the development of new medicine and drugs. Contract research organisation such as Molecule2Market are in high demand in these trying times in consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is my pleasure to provide you this list of tips on hiring the right contract research organisation for your company:

1. Credentials

This is one of the most basic and quintessential aspects of hiring a CRO for your company. Ensure that they are properly vetted and are equipped with the necessary expertise to do the job as they represent your company’s image. By asking for their portfolio, you can carefully compare and examine their previous projects and solidifying your decision if they are what your company is looking for.

2. Professionalism

Even though most contract research organisations, in general, are professionals in their own respective fields with years of high quality of experience at their disposal, sometimes, there are several bad apples here and there. Confirm that they are true professionals by carefully observing their work ethic and attitude in the workplace, check on patient’s opinions and their previous contractors and ask for their feedback, conduct simulations, and assessment and compare the result with others so that you may arrive at a desirable obvious decision.

3. Authenticity

There have been some medical staff cases that have forged a counterfeited degree and operated under it, which in itself is a pretty audacious feat that deserves no praise as it endangers the lives of patients and your company. For the sake of authenticity, transparency is of the essence. Ask for their certificates and qualifications; any supporting documents that may substantiate their claims are required to be meticulously examined as part of your screening process. You may refer to it as a technical audit.

4. Pricing

It comes without a shadow of a doubt, that not only the technical aspect is important but the commercial as well. You should compare their quotations or proposals with other qualified contract research organisations and choose the one that will provide the best value for your company. Make sure to ask for a detailed proposal, listing all of your needs and requirements, and check the market’s price to make sure that their numbers are fair and realistic.

5. Services

One of the determining factors is the services that they are able to cover. You do not want a contract research organisation that can only do one thing and not the other, e.g., only monitoring, not being able to carry out inspections, or data management. You would prefer that they are able to provide the full range of services that are involved from start to finish, i.e., monitoring, clinical trials, inspections, data collection, data entry, patient recruitment, vendor management, study reports, auditing, training, and so on—the whole nine yards.

An honorable mention would be customer service. You would want a contract research organisation that gives you their full undivided attention and is completely dedicated to your project. A contract research organisation with too many projects at hand will be quite likely unable to perform at a maximum capacity. Make sure to check whether you are their priority in order to avoid any unsatisfactory hiring.