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• Site ratings for CRO companies are again mediocre, largely comparable to those from the relationship quality survey taken in 1999. Several notable exceptions: contracting and budgeting, and the grant payment process have significantly worsened, according to investigative sites.
• Results show from the 2001 CenterWatch survey show that Ingenix, Covance, PPD, MDS Pharma and Omnicare are the top five CROs rated by the investigative sites with which they work. Missing from this survey's top five: Quintiles, Parexel and Kendle.

Article 226: A Look at the Internet's Patient Recruitment Matchmakers

• The venture capital community has invested more than $50 million for Internet-based companies to build distribution and match patients into clinical trials.
• It is too soon to tell if matchmakers offer a viable patient recruitment solution. To date, sponsor adoption of web-based matchmaking has been slow.

• Dr. Ingrid Klingmann is European general manager at Scirex and the new chairperson of the DIA's Steering Committee for Europe. During her interview she discusses the agenda for her new role, the most pressing issues the European industry is facing, how she can increase European physicians' interest in clinical trials and how the DIA can help develop standards and rules to protect and care for patients in poor countries.

• Nearly 12% of men and 20% of women will experience a depressive episode at some time in their lives. There are several depressive disorders, but major depression entails the most significant impairment and suffering in a person's life. One-fifth of patients will re-experience depression after their first episode resolves; more than half of all suicides are committed by people with a depressive disorder. CenterWatch Drug Intelligence has identified 34 drugs currently in the clinical pipeline for depression and estimates that between $160 million and $170 million will be spent on their development.