Article 393: 2004 Year in Review, Gaining Momentum in Difficult Times

• CROs, SMOs, investigative sites, electronic data capture software vendors and patient recruitment companies and others are being looked at with renewed vigor by pharmaceutical companies seeking new drugs and increased efficiency. CenterWatch predicts that the clinical research outsourcing market will gain further traction in 2005, resulting in a stronger year for service providers, and the beginning of a new era for pharmaceutical companies reworking their clinical research processes.

Article 394: Lilly Taps Potential of Online Investigator Meetings

• Online investigator meetings may save sponsors money without compromising either comprehension or study data quality. Lilly has found a correlation between use of its distance training tools and reduced queries per CRF visit, fewer GCP issues, and quicker study startups. Support services are critical to success. Virtual training reduces investigator meeting lengths from days to hours, addressing a chief complaint of time-pressed investigative sites. But skeptics outside Lilly worry that trainees might be easily distracted during in-office training and fail to form the kind of bond with content presenters that elicit intelligent questioning.

Article 395: Agency Heralds New Era of Clinical Trial Cooperation in Italy

• The Italian Medicines Agency, launched last July, will place special importance on promoting investment in R&D to ensure patients have access to innovative drugs.

Article 396: Eye on: Type 1 Diabetes

• Type 1 diabetes affects more than 700,000 Americans. CenterWatch has identified a pipeline of 16 drugs in development for type 1 diabetes.