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Level Up Your Research: How CRAMS Can Boost Your Life Sciences Game

CRAMS or Contract Research and Manufacturing Services can be a game-changer for the life sciences industry. In fact, if you’re in this sector, then opting for suitable contract research outfits will help you enhance your game to a new level altogether. So what does this market cover? This essentially involves outsourcing multiple R&D (research and development) activities in the life sciences sector to third-party service providers/entities. These may include clinical and preclinical research in addition to drug discovery, regulatory affairs, and related solutions/services.

Companies in the life sciences industry may tap outsourcing to streamline overall operations, get access to highly specialized skill-sets and expertise, lower costs, and scale up innovation much faster. This is a segment that is populated by several service providers who can broadly be positioned within the CRAMS category, including CROs or contract research organizations, CMOs or contract manufacturing organizations, and other specialized entities offering diverse services.

Some Key Facts on CRAMS and Its Importance

CRAMS is steadily gaining traction throughout the global life sciences industry, with clinical-development full-service outsourcing steadily increasing at the CRO (contract research organization) level. This has also led to in-sourcing among biopharmaceutical players, particularly bigger pharma companies and there will be a sustained fluctuation in the segment going forward as per several reports.

• CROs are also required to steadily align their solutions as per smaller companies in the biotechnology and life sciences space.
• This is because they are becoming major clinical development stakeholders today, particularly when it comes to new formulations and therapies along with other innovation-oriented offerings.
• The clinical pipeline has witnessed a decline in the share of the top 15 pharma companies (20% in 2021 from 40% in 2011).
• However, going forward, biotechnology and life sciences has a huge chunk of advanced molecules for development throughout sectors like monoclonal antibodies, gene and cell therapy, and RNA and DNA therapeutics.
• Bigger pharma entities are anticipated to scale up their R&D spending at 4% annually in 2025, touching around $234 billion.
• At the same time, R&D spending in biotech is also expected to grow up to 8% per year as well.
• This augurs well for higher CRAMS spends, with contract research organization (CRO) revenues anticipated to touch $46 billion by 2025. This indicates growth of more than 40% as compared to 2020.
• Bigger biotech product pipelines in the biotech sector and a marked preference to retain assets for longer durations by biotech entities will fuel this growth.

What are the Key Contract Research Outsourcing Markets?

Here are some of the leading contract research outsourcing markets/sectors worth noting.

• Clinical Trials
• Drug Discovery
• Phase I Trials
• Preclinical
• Regulatory Services
• Phase II Trials
• Phase IV Trails
• Phase III Trials
• Clinical Data Management
• Medical Writing Services

In terms of application, the CRO segment will majorly cater to clinical trial laboratories, academic medical centers, and other contract research organizations.

How CRO/CRAMS Solutions Benefit the Life Sciences Industry

CRAMS or contract research organizations (CROs) bring numerous benefits to biotech and life sciences companies. Some of them include the following:

• Life sciences companies can leverage these service providers to optimize R&D processes, while enabling more optimal allocation of internal resources.
• This is even more essential at a time when there is higher complexity in research along with escalating costs for the same.
• It will also help biotech/life sciences players meet growing demand and pressure to come up with more innovative treatments, products, and therapies.
• Tapping into external resources will enable mitigation of risks linked with in-house development.
• Another advantage is that these service offerings cover the entire drug development lifecycle.
• This includes preclinical or early-stage research, clinical trials, post-market surveillance, and more.
• There are many service providers who focus on specific segments like infectious diseases, oncology, or rare ailments, for instance. This enables life sciences players to boost their offerings in these categories.
• In many cases, the geographic spread of service providers helps life sciences companies create products while adhering to local regulatory requirements.
• These solutions are particularly helpful for biotech companies that are known for their innovation, but do not have the reputation of a large-scale life sciences giant yet.
• These companies may not have the resources or relationships to take care of clinical trial interactions with patients, regulators, caregivers, and investigators.
• Innovation in the clinical development space already means collaborating with highly specialized vendors for various services. These may include virtual or decentralized trials, electronic assessments of clinical outcomes, and trial payments.
• It is difficult to ensure vendor management on a large scale if you are an emerging biotech/life sciences company. This is where a CRO or CRAMS may come in handy.

Wrapping Up

Many life sciences companies, both large and small, are already tying up with partner entities. Pfizer has one partnership with BioNTech, while Janssen has a partnership with Genmab. Contract research organizations will find out where life sciences companies are underserved and adapt solutions to fill up these gaps. At the same time, CROs are also enabling technological advancements for their life sciences partners through tools like AI (artificial intelligence).

It is helping bypass expensive maintenance through predicting possible flaws, lapses, and production issues. Advanced analytics is also enabling improvements in clinical technologies, thereby delivering AI-based recommendations. This is also revolutionizing clinical trials and data gathering with seamless registration, follow-ups, reminders, and of course, invaluable insights that contribute directly towards product development. Hence, as can be seen, life sciences companies can unlock numerous benefits by working with entities in the CRAMS segment.

FAQs

1. What are Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS), and how do they apply to the life sciences industry?

Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) entities specialize in helping life sciences industry players take care of both production and research. Their service portfolio may encompass everything from preclinical to clinical trials, entire R&D, assessments, post-market surveillance, drug development, and more.

2. Can CRAMS help me achieve faster or more efficient research outcomes?

CRAMS may enable you to achieve better or faster research outcomes, with targeted skill-sets and specializations. These entities will leverage their technological and industry expertise to help you conduct research and clinical trials faster with more efficient mechanisms/methods in place. This will reduce the strain on your internal teams and resources for getting the job done.

3. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics used to measure the success and effectiveness of CRAMS partnerships in the life sciences industry?

There may be several KPIs and other metrics for measuring the effectiveness and success of CRAMS partnerships in the life sciences industry. These include partner engagement and satisfaction, scope of work, quality assurance, budget management, and more.

4. What are some emerging trends and advancements in CRAMS technologies and services that are reshaping the landscape of life sciences research and development?

Some of the emerging advancements and trends in CRAMS service and technologies include AI (artificial intelligence) deployment, bioprinting, and data analytics which are transforming the life sciences industry.

5. How do CRAMS boost drug development?

CRAMS enables life sciences companies to take care of multiple drug development stages along with every phase of manufacturing, thereby helping them speed up the process while adhering to regulatory requirements across multiple regions. It also helps them allocate resources more effectively while saving time and money simultaneously.