CRO Services Market

Global CRO Services Market Size (2021 to 2026)

The global CRO Services market size is anticipated to grow at a 6.66% CAGR from 2021 to 2026. It is estimated that the global market is predicted to be worth USD 54.33 billion by 2026 from USD 39.36 billion in 2021.

A CRO is a company that provides support to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical devices market in the form of research services outsourced on a contract basis. The services provided by CRO include clinical trials, prediscovery research, CMS, post-marketing services, and laboratory services. CRO is now expanding its work by assisting companies through all stages of the development of drugs. There has an increased advancement in technology used by CRO services, which has made the market more popular. Rapid globalization of important countries has helped the Contract Research Organizations services market to build a place in this sector. Pharmaceutical Companies value the importance of cybersecurity and thus want to protect the data related to clinical trials making the CRO services market less popular. Recently the Contract Research Organization services have started to use wearable devices for making the process easier and more efficient. India and China will play a significant role in the growth of the global CRO services market.

MARKET DRIVERS:

The significant factor contributing to the growth of the global CRO services market is the increase in research and development of these services. The rising government initiatives have boosted the research being done in this market. Private companies have also started to invest more in these services due to their vast potential in the future. There is an increase in the number of clinical trials globally, which has boosted the market growth. The rise in the geriatric population worldwide, especially in the European and Asia Pacific regions, has ensured the development of this market in the future. The prevalence of chronic diseases due to the rise in population has also helped in the growth of this market. There is an increased outsourcing of the early phase clinical trials to reduce the expenses and boost profits. The companies try to avoid high costs by reducing the process and product validation time and thus fuelling the market's growth.

From an operational point of view, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important. Clinical trial sponsors are particularly apprehensive about keeping their data private, especially after a recent breach involving clinical data. Businesses are concerned about what happens if their data is stolen and if it could harm R&D activities. Pharmaceuticals and life sciences companies using CROs to protect their test data are now emphasizing new operational strategies. The factors, as mentioned above, are slowly degrading the demand of the market.

Demand for CROs has increased as health facilities have unlocked various benefits from conventional research organizations to commercial businesses. As demand for CROs has increased, investors have identified tremendous growth opportunities in CROs. The increase in the number of investors involved in the development of research advisory organizations is likely to provide several options for the growth of contract research organization services.

CROs are now expanding their target market by expanding and deepening solutions throughout the life cycle of drug development. Increased investment in technology and big data will continue to play an important role. Most importantly, wearable devices, a potentially disruptive technology, offer significant market opportunities, and recently, CROs have begun to utilize data from mobile medical wearable devices to improve data quality and test efficiency, which is providing lucrative opportunities for the growth of contract research organization service market during the forecast period.

MARKET RESTRAINTS:

The significant factors that restrict the growth of contract research organization services are the lack of qualified scientists and difficulties in assigning staff expertise for specific projects.

Impact of COVID-19 on the global CRO services market:

The epidemic of COVID-19 has affected the healthcare sector in several ways. The pharmaceutical industry is under enormous pressure to produce vaccines, diagnostic assays, and breakthrough drugs due to the crisis. With 2,000-5,000 new cases every day, the pandemic has changed the healthcare industry's focus entirely on diagnosing and treating COVID-19. As a result, originally planned and ongoing research and development and clinical trial projects have been postponed or interrupted, and the number of clinical trials has decreased in recent months. Due to the suspension of enrolments and sluggish enrollment process delayed initializations, the CRO services market has seen a downfall during the pandemic period. However, the global CRO services market is expected to regain momentum soon and is predicted to register healthy growth.

REPORT COVERAGE:

This research report on the global CRO services market has been segmented and sub-segmented into the following categories and analyzed market size and forecast for each segment until 2025.

CRO Services Market – By Type:

• Clinical Research Services         
• Phase I Clinical Research Services        
• Phase II Clinical Research Services       
• Phase III Clinical Research Services      
• Phase IV Clinical Research Services      
• Early-Phase Development Services                
• Discovery Studies       
• Chemistry, Manufacturing, & Control (CMC)     
• Preclinical Services      
  • Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics (PK/PD)
  • Toxicology Testing Services
  • Other Preclinical Services
• Laboratory Services               
• Bioanalytical Testing Services    
• Analytical Testing Services       
  • Physical Characterization
  • Raw Material Testing
  • Batch-Release Testing
  • Stability Testing
  • Other Analytical Testing Services
• Consulting Services         

Clinical research had the largest share by type, which can be attributed to rapid growth in the geriatric population and the resulting increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases, increased drug production, and increasing acceptance of evidence-based medicine for various therapeutic areas.

CRO Services Market – By Therapeutic Area:

• Oncology
• CNS
• Cardiovascular      

The CVS disorders are the most promising segment among all in the global CRO services market. The growing number of clinical trials and the rising global prevalence of cancer is responsible for the oncology segment's large share.

CRO Services Market – By End User:

• Pharmaceutical
• Biopharmaceutical
• Medical Device Companies

In 2019, the market share of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies will be about 54%. It is primarily driven by the growing demand for CRO services and increased government funding for pharmaceutical companies. It includes important clinical trials during the drug development process, boosting the segmental revenue share.

CRO Services Market – By Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• The Middle East and Africa

Geographically, North America has the largest share in the global market. The large share of this regional segment can be credited to its high-quality pharmaceutical industry standards, swift growth in the biosimilars and biologics market, increase in demand for outsourcing services by pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, and rise in the number of clinical trials in this region. Additionally, increasing government investments in research and development activities and increasing demand for successful therapies for the management of chronic diseases are expected to raise CRO services industry revenues in North America over the forecast period. Due to high healthcare awareness, increasing demand for technologically advanced and therapeutically effective goods, and strong spending on healthcare services propel the demand of the CRO services market.

Due to a large emphasis on research and development activities by leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medtech companies in the region, Europe was found to be the second most dominant region in the global contract research organization (CRO) services market in 2019.

The market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow the most in the coming years. It is mainly due to the rapid growth in the pharmaceutical industry, favorable government policies, an increase in the number of pharmaceutical companies establishing manufacturing facilities, and lower cost for clinical trials in the region.

KEY MARKET PARTICIPANTS:

Some of the companies dominating the Global CRO Services Market are Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc., Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Pharmaceutical Product Development, PAREXEL International Corporation, ICON Plc, PRA Health Sciences Inc., InVentiv Health Inc., Charles River Laboratories International Inc., INC Research Holdings Inc., and Wuxi PharmaTech.

RECENT MARKET DEVELOPMENTS:

• In April 2019, FHI 360 has launched a new CRO service called FHI Clinical. The company focuses on helping companies in the hard-to-reach market and settings of limited resources.
• In 2018, Cereno Scientific collaborated with CRO ‘OCT’ to enhance business operations and increase productivity.
• In August 2017, Chiltern was acquired by LabCorp. The acquisition will help LabCorp become a market leader in CROs by expanding mid-market biopharmaceuticals and improving medical device operations.
• In July 2017, Mapi Group was acquired by ICON; the acquisition will help boost ICON's business, as well as add Analytics, real-world data, significant trading presence, and regulatory expertise.