The contract service providers have established themselves as an indispensable part of the supply chain in the pharmaceutical / medical device industry. Given the ongoing efforts to minimize product costs, growing complexity to conduct clinical trials, profound technological advancements and introduction of stringent regulatory standards, outsourcing is considered as a viable and strategically beneficial solution for various stakeholders in the medical device domain. In fact, outsourcing of clinical trials have attracted several device manufacturers due to operational as well as financial flexibility of outsourcing models. CROs are fulfilling the needs of medical device companies and help them to avoid incurring the costs and infrastructure. In the past few years, a shift in the outsourcing percentage of clinical trials has been observed; further, the trend of outsourcing is anticipated to escalate considerably with every passing year. Moreover, in order to keep pace with latest technological advancements and manage vast amounts of data generated by medical devices, several industry giants are increasingly outsourcing their statistical and data analysis operations.
Further, the demand for unified data platforms, as well as challenges associated with data privacy and IP breach has prompted several prominent CROs to re-evaluate their existing operational models and business strategies. The domain has witnessed unprecedented mergers and acquisitions in the recent past as CROs attempt to present a highly capable service portfolio to their clients. This chapter highlights some of the important trends and factors that are likely to influence the growth and evolution of the medical device CRO market in the coming years. Figure 16.1 presents a summary of these factors.
Figure 16.1 Future Trends and Opportunities for Medical Device CROs
Source: Roots Analysis
