Managing Clinical Grant Costs through the use of Unaffiliated Investigators

Abstract

As the costs of developing drugs continue to soar, pharmaceutical companies are looking to manage these costs more effectively. One of the largest single cost items in drug development is the cost of outside investigators to test new compounds and marketed drugs. Speed, quality, and safety are the most important considerations in conducting a clinical trial. Recently, companies have begun to place a greater emphasis on managing the costs of conducting these clinical trials. One significant way companies are managing investigator grant costs is by shifting studies away from investigators affiliated with hospitals and other medical institutions to independent, or unaffiliated, investigators. The comparable grant costs of these unaffiliated investigators are substantially less on a per patient basis.