Global Contract Research Organization Market Size (2024 - 2029)

Contract Research Organization Market Analysis

The Global Contract Research Organization Market is expected to register a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge effect on the contract research organization (CRO) market because clinical trials were still going on to find effective treatments and vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. For example, in January 2021, ICON PLC and Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech announced that they would work together to develop the investigational COVID-19 vaccine program that Pfizer and BioNTech were working on. As part of this program, ICON worked at more than 153 sites in Europe, South Africa, the United States, and Latin America to recruit 44,000 participants for clinical trial studies. The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among CROs saw an uptick in 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. As per Clinical Trials Arena, in April 2022, there were 50 completed M&A deals last year, which is 21 more than in 2020, when there were only 29. There were 20 completed M&A CRO deals in the first half of 2021, with 30 such deals in the second half. After a pandemic, CROs will be able to use the lessons they learned from COVID-19 and adopt new technologies to improve data management, reduce staffing needs, and make patient monitoring easier. For example, as per an article by Frontiers Media S.A. from April 2022, the use of AI technology helps SMEs turn COVID-19 challenges into chances to improve their performance and their chances of staying in business. Thus, due to the increased focus on vaccine development against COVID-19, there was an increase in clinical trials along with the adoption of emerging technologies, which boosted the CRO industry. 

The contrast research organization market growth is due to more money being spent on research and development, more R&D activities being outsourced, and more clinical trials. Pharmaceutical companies' bottom lines continue to be affected by things like patents that expire and let generic competitors enter the market and strict requirements from regulators. According to the Congressional Research Service update, by September 2022, global R&D spending will have significantly increased since 2000, rising from USD 675 billion to USD 2.4 trillion by 2020. Furthermore, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), in 2022, nearly USD 1.7 trillion was spent globally on R&D. Approximately 10 nations receive 80% of the money spent. Countries have committed to significantly boosting public and corporate R&D spending, as well as the number of researchers by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Hence, with strong investments in R&D activities and a robust pipeline of therapeutics under development, the global CRO market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. 

The CRO market growth is also being driven by the fact that CROs have increased their offerings with respect to services and that collaborations have become more popular. For example, in September 2022, the Australian CRO for biotech's, Avance Clinical, grew into North America by buying the CRO partner company C3 Research Associates. This made it easy for biotech clients to move from early-phase studies to later-phase studies. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. also bought Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC, a company that helps the biotech and biopharma industries, in December 2021. Thus, the CRO market is expected to register significant growth over the forecast period due to these factors. 

However, the shortage of skilled professionals is expected to restrain market growth. 

Contract Research Organization Industry Segmentation

As per the scope of this report, a contract research organization is a company that provides clinical trial services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. CROs range from large, international, full-service organizations to small, niche specialty groups. They can help their clients get a new drug or device from the idea stage to FDA marketing approval without the drug sponsor having to keep a staff for these services. The CRO market is divided into service types (clinical research services (phase I, phase II, and phase III clinical research services), early-phase development services, laboratory services, consulting services, regulatory affairs, and other services), therapeutic areas (oncology, infectious diseases, central nervous system disorders, immunological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disorders, diabetes, and other therapeutic areas), end users (pharmaceutical companies), and other end users. The market report also covers the estimated CRO market size and trends for 17 different countries across major regions globally. The report offers the value (in USD million) for the above-mentioned segments.