The total CRO market size is estimated at US$14 billion in 2006 and expected to grow at an annual rate of 14-16% to reach US$24 billion through 2010. The market is highly fragmented and the number of CROs worldwide has reached over 1,100 despite continued consolidation, according to the CRO Market Outlook report by Business Insights.
CROs provide substantial global capacity to drug developers and have become critical contributors to clinical trial activity. Clinical trials conducted by CROs are completed up to 30%more quickly than those conducted in-house by pharmaceutical companies.
Of the large, global contract research providers, the report says Quintiles is market leader, with 14% of the global market share, followed by Covance and PPD, holding 10% each.
The five largest CROs have increased their market share and now hold 45% of the total market.
Leading CROs are commodity full service providers operating on a global scale. They act as one-stop shops for all services, from preclinical through marketing.
CROs and pharmaceutical companies are also turning to strategic partnerships to gain a competitive edge in the global business environment.
In China, the CRO market is emerging with vast numbers of treatment-naïve patients, low costs, shortened timelines for clinical trials and large centralized hospitals where most patients are treated, GCP-trained and Western educated doctors who are enthusiastic about learning how to conduct clinical trials and disease patterns that are beginning to resemble the Western world's.
The country's market and infrastructure have grown rapidly in the past ten years. In a 2004 survey of senior executives at multinational companies across all industries, China ranked first among the most favored offshore bases for R&D; India ranked third, just behind the US, but ahead of the UK.
The size of China's pharmaceutical market in 2006 has been approximately $14bn. China has maintained steady growth over the past few years and is now the eighth largest drug market according to IMS.
It is forecasted that based on an average, steady growth of 13%. It will become the world's fifth largest market by 2010.
Meanwhile, the drug discovery outsourcing market (preclinical and clinical) in China was worth US$5.9 billion in 2006. It is projected to reach US$12.3 billion in 2011. In 2006, the preclinical development market was worth US$2.5 billion.
This market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7% through the period 2006-2011, to reach US$5.1 billion in 2011.
The clinical development market was worth US$3.4 billion in 2006 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.8% through the period 2006-2011 to reach US$7.2 billion in 2011.
Until 2001, the global biopharmaceutical industry remained static, largely because the regulatory and competitive environment in China was not conducive to globally operating companies.
Since then, the market has changed considerably. Drug discovery and clinical research capabilities are more widespread and more sophisticated due to the steady increase in R&D work arriving from abroad.
Investment, both governmental and private, is soaring and new service providers are attracted by China's increasingly favorable research environment. Contract research is both a vehicle for China's pharmaceutical sector to expand R&D expertise and a bridge to enter global markets.
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