An initial study of the only publicly available data detailing clinical trial starts where contract research organizations (CROs) were named as a collaborator in 2013 shows a 10% lessening in work to the service provider industry. If these figures are to be taken at face value, this means that the number of such trial starts has halved in the past two years.

However, there is no reason to be alarmed for those working within the outsourcing community. As CROs are increasingly used as consultants for study start-ups, this lower figure recorded on the US government database, ClinicalTrials.gov, could indicate that the true worth of the CRO is being recognized by its pharma partners. This would take the form of the whole industry working together to reduce spend on clinical trials and to funnel time and effort into focusing resources on a smaller number of later-stage drug candidates, as drug developers streamline their pipelines away from more speculative early-stage candidates in an attempt to maximize return on investment.