RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies outsource 57% of their spending on Phase 3 clinical trials, according to a new benchmarking report, "Clinical Operations: Accelerating Trials, Allocating Resources and Measuring Performance" (http://www.ClinicalTrialBenchmarking.com), published by business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information.

The company surveyed dozens of leading pharmaceutical and biotech firms about their clinical development spending, staffing, and performance measurement practices. Surveyed companies follow a similar outsourcing pattern for Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 4 studies, as well. Outsourcing ranges from 54% to 64% for trials in these development phases, on average.

Cutting Edge Information developed "Clinical Operations: Accelerating Trials, Allocating Resources and Measuring Performance" (http://www.ClinicalTrialBenchmarking.com) using information gleaned from interviews and surveys with clinical trial operations and clinical development executives; trial managers; CRAs; and heads of medical writing, biostatistics, regulatory affairs, clinical quality assurance, and a host of other clinical trial support functions. The report also contains staffing metrics for more than 70 trials spanning the globe and covering all phases of development. Budget benchmarks include cost-per-patient data that covers development phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 and more than 10 different therapeutic areas.

"We published 'Clinical Operations' to give our clients an off-the-shelf tool to help them benchmark the efficiency and performance of their individual trial teams and clinical development organizations as a whole," said Jon Hess, research team leader at Cutting Edge Information and lead author of the report.

Hess says that "Clinical Operations" (http://www.ClinicalTrialBenchmarking.com) also addresses clinical trial performance measurement -- a topic of keen interest to many of Cutting Edge Information's clients. The report contains lists of performance measures employed by the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies profiled in the report, as well as target and actual performance metrics.

Case studies, best practices and tactics for addressing key operational challenges are the foundation of the report's qualitative information. A dozen of the most common clinical trial workflow bottlenecks are examined, and interviewed executives' innovative solutions for addressing challenges, such as delays in clinical trial document writing and reviews, are presented in case study format.

To view a summary of "Clinical Operations: Accelerating Trials, Allocating Resources and Measuring Performance," visit http://www.ClinicalTrialBenchmarking.com or contact Jon Hess at or .

SOURCE Cutting Edge Information