CROs present opportunities in scientific, technical, and business and commercial development.
By S. Karina Kwok, Ph.D.
Contract research organizations (CROs) provide services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and play important roles in the drug development and approval process. CROs provide a myriad of services to the pharmaceutical industry, such as in vivo and in vitro preclinical testing, drug substance process development and manufacturing, formulation development and drug product manufacturing, and clinical trials management. With the changes occurring in the pharmaceutical industry, CROs are taking on more important roles in the development and approval of new therapeutics.1 In spite of the important role played by CROs, from a career development and advancement standpoint, positions at CROs are generally not perceived to be on the same level as positions available in their client pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. This article provides some insights on career opportunities at CROs that will hopefully assist a pharmaceutical scientist in making a career decision when a CRO career opportunity comes along.
For this article, the description of CROs includes contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). Additionally, the discussions in this article are based on the model where the subcontracted work is generally conducted at a site external to a client pharmaceutical or biotechnology company.