Do They Perform CNS Clinical Trials? 6 Tips for Finding the Right CRO

Finding the right contract research organization to partner with for your drug development cycle can be a challenge. There may be certain trials or studies your organization will need to perform, such as driving simulations for CNS clinical trials. Does your CRO partner have proven expertise in conducting them? Does it offer an unmatched recruiting database to streamline recruiting potential candidates for quicker study startup? Can your CRO partner manufacture your drug, helping the clinical trial progress faster and smoother when formulations need to be changed? Here are some factors to consider when choosing the right CRO to support your drug development program.

A Fully Integrated Process

The best CROs use a fully integrated process. This is important if you are partnering with a CRO for the duration of your drug development. Teams within the CRO freely share information through a proprietary database, which makes moving from one phase to another faster and more efficient. For example, researchers can quickly deliver information from a clinical trial to the bioanalysis team. Instead of relying on different organizations to pass data along as your project progresses—which takes up valuable time—they can share information instantly.

Recruiting Databases

Whether you need to find a specific population, such as those able to be part of CNS clinical trials, or you simply want to streamline recruiting, a comprehensive database can help. Make sure your CRO partner has a recruiting database full of a diverse collection of potential participants. This can help match potential participants to the study criteria. It also streamlines the recruiting stage of the process. The right database is crucial for specific study populations, such as those needed for ethnobridging trials—to avoid having to to repeat a clinical trial in another region. Factors like these can potentially save your organization both time and money.

Supporting CNS Clinical Trials

CNS clinical trials are more challenging than the typical first-in-human clinical trial. There are usually added components, such as toxicity studies or human abuse potential studies. Supporting CNS clinical trials takes additional training and resources that some CROs might not have. If your drug shows signs that it could cause impairment, you will very likely need to conduct additional studies. This makes choosing the right CRO vital for an optimized drug development cycle.

Pharmaceutical CDMO Services

Another way your CRO partner can streamline your drug development cycle is with pharmaceutical CDMO services. Being able to produce the drugs to start your study or when you need formulations changed while your clinical trial is ongoing can contribute to faster turnaround times than using a secondary CDMO for manufacturing. A fully integrated CRO/CDMO can quickly relay information and begin production when formulations need to be changed. That means the manufacturing team can take action immediately with the real-time data, instead of waiting for essential details to be communicated to them by an external partner.

Experienced Staff

Having experienced staff is a key part of choosing the right CRO. If their staff does not know how to conduct clinical trials, never designed a protocol, and never used the equipment needed for your trial, they may not be the right fit. Trained, expert staff are vital to streamlining your drug development cycle, as opposed to waiting for the staff to learn how to design, conduct, and report on your studies.

Phase 1 Clinical Trial Units

Resources are another essential benefit of a full-service CRO partner. Having resources such as Phase 1 clinical trial units available removes the need to outsource for key study elements. Instead, the CRO will already have the beds for overnight studies. Or they can offer the areas to collect samples for studies without an overnight component. Similarly, the CRO may be able to offer driving simulators and other equipment for CNS clinical trials. As such, you can confidently start your organization’s latest drug development cycle, knowing you have all the support you need.

About Altasciences

As a mid-sized contract research organization, Altasciences understands all the intricacies of the complex drug development process. This CRO with pharmaceutical CDMO capabilities uses their proprietary communication database to quickly share data across teams, helping streamline your drug development program. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations rely on Altasciences’ integrated, innovative approach for preclinical studies, clinical trials, and manufacturing. When partnering with Altasciences, you gain the team’s expertise in various therapeutic indications and study types. These include first-in-human clinical trials and CNS clinical trials. This dynamic CRO/CDMO offers partners access to a wealth of resources, including Phase 1 clinical trial units with more than 580 beds, a recruiting database of more than 400,000 potential participants, and trained and experienced staff.

When you want a CRO to help streamline your drug development, partner with Altasciences at https://www.altasciences.com/