The global contract research market is growing at a strong rate owing to increasing patent expiration and declining R&D productivity. Furthermore, increasing costs of new product development and revenue loss due to generics have resulted in high demand for contract researching of new biologics and compounds. The global CRO market is highly consolidated with the combined market share of the top-10 companies in this market estimated to be around 80% in 2016. This consolidation can be attributed to the highly stringent nature of the market with requirements of high capital investment. The leaders in this market include a mix of public-listed and privately held organizations.
A ranking system was developed for the top-10 global clinical research organizations. A score statistic was developed to determine the rank of each organization. Revenues, scope of service portfolio, net income and expenses ratios were the key input criteria used to calculate the score statistic for and every organization was assigned a score for each of these key input criteria. Different weights were assigned to each rank. A weighted sum of the scores was used to arrive at the final score statistic for each organization. The final score statistic represents the financial health, competitive advantage, and activity status of each organization in the clinical trials domain.
Ranking of Top-10 Global CRO
Note: *Estimated, **2015, Y= present
Sources: Annual reports and SEC filings.
QUINTILES IMS HOLDINGS, INC.
Quintiles recorded its revenues at USD 7.8 billion, an increase by nearly 20% from previous year. The company is ranked first among the top CROs across the globe owing to its wide portfolio of clinical research and post-clinical research services. Formed through the merger of Quintiles and IMS Health, QuintilesIMS’s over 50,000 employees conduct operations in more than 100 countries and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS
The company became the second largest player in the ranking post its acquisition of Covance in 2015. The Company reports its business in two segments, LabCorp Diagnostics (LCD) and Covance Drug Development (CDD). Covance Drug Development is a provider of end-to-end drug development services from early-stage research to regulatory approval and beyond. In 2016, LCD and CDD contributed 69.9% and 30.1%, respectively, of net revenues to the Company.
PAREXEL International Corporation
The company is ranked third in the list and has a second largest service portfolio. The company provides a broad range of expertise in clinical research, clinical logistics, medical communications, consulting, commercialization and advanced technology products and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.
Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC
PPD is a privately held organization with a strong portfolio of integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services including clinical, pre-clinical, post-clinical, and commercialisation services. The company has 89 offices in 47 countries with more than 19,000 employees.
INC RESEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.
The company is focused primarily on Phase I to Phase IV clinical development services for the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. The company has approximately 6,800 employees in 50 countries across six continents. The company offers a variety of clinical development services, including global studies, clinical monitoring, investigator recruitment, patient recruitment, data management, specialized consulting services, scientific exploratory medicine amongst others.
PRA Health Sciences, Inc.
The company provides clinical trial expertise using clinical development platform includes approximately 70 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East and over 13,000 employees worldwide. The company ranked seventh in the list, owing to one of the highest expense ratios and low income ratios.
ICON PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
The Ireland based company specialize in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support all stages of the clinical development process - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. Net revenues for the company increase 5.8%, from 2015 to 2016 owing to continued organic growth and acquisition of ClinicalRM in 2016.
WUXI PHARMATECH (CAYMAN) INC
The Chinese company is a contract researcher for most of the largest pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies and many smaller companies. It portfolio includes small molecule R&D and manufacturing, biologics R&D and manufacturing, cell therapy and gene therapy R&D and manufacturing, medical device testing, and molecular testing and genomics. The company’s platform is enabling nearly 3,000 innovative collaborators from more than 30 countries to bring innovative healthcare products.
CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC.
The company has a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support target identification and drug development model. The company has three reporting segments: Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Support (Manufacturing).
Advent International
Advent, a private equity firm, acquired inVentiv Health in 2016. The company provides comprehensive and integrated clinical and commercial outsourcing services to the biopharmaceutical industry. The company has more than 15,000 healthcare professionals servicing clients in 90 countries.
Sources: Annual reports and SEC filings.
