Article 429: Contract/Budget Process Top Study Delay

• In an unprecedented result, respondents to the 2005 Thomson CenterWatch 2005 Survey of Investigative Sites in the U.S. have rated the contract and budget negotiation and approval process the number one factor most often causing study delays. The contract and budget negotiation and approval process causes delay not only in study startup but also in patient recruitment and enrollment, the major focus area of the clinical research industry in terms of reducing drug development times.

Article 430: Staffing Companies Staff up

• Clinical staffing companies have seen continued growth as drug companies become more receptive to using these firms for supplying contract clinical staff. While staffing companies work with small- and medium-sized biopharmaceutical companies, usually supplying one or two contractors for a particular project, the majority of the contracts for large numbers of personnel are with major pharmaceutical companies.

Article 431: Directives Create Legal Patchwork in EU

• Harmonization seems a long way off from being achieved, creating a difficult legal patchwork for researchers to puzzle through.

Article 432: Eye on: Breast Cancer

• In the U.S., breast cancer causes 40,000 deaths each year. CenterWatch has identified a pipeline of 27 drugs in development for breast cancer.