Many companies find that it makes more sense to use an external preclinical CRO for their application. As with any critical subcontracted work, making the right choice is important and should be evaluated carefully. While cost and readiness are two of the most commonly looked at areas in the selection of a CRO, they should not necessarily be the two most important criteria to look at, in many cases making a decision based on cost and readiness may end up costing more on the long run and in some cases also causing the project to fail.

The primary criteria to look at when selecting a preclinical CRO are animal welfare, confidentiality, and experience. Other factors that should be evaluated are:

Expertise: make sure that the laboratory does in deed have the expertise to conduct the type of study needed.

Reputation: by nature, a good laboratory will not only have a good reputation, but will also strive to maintain that reputation when conducting your study.

Capacity: it is a good practice to see how many studies can the CRO conduct at the same time vs. how many they have going on. An overworked employee is often a contributor to making mistakes or having problems during a study.

Responsiveness: How responsive is the CRO to the study monitor and to the Sponsor requests, especially if issues come up during a study.

Qualifications: Staff qualification and experience is a key element to help make sure that qualified individuals are performing the tasks.

Organization: Organization, especially in between different studies, different staggers and execution are a key for showing if the CRO is experienced.

Cost: while cost is a very important factor, but decisions made mainly due to cost while not having enough confidence in the other criteria may be an indication that the study may fail.

Reliability: A good CRO should execute the work in a timely manner to assure the project submission timelines are met.

GLP Compliance: It is a good practice to conduct an audit to see how well the CRO executes in compliance with GLP practices.

BTS Research has made these metrics key parameters in their business conduct with the Sponsors and holds honesty in conduct above all. We aim to exceed expectations for these metrics and continuously provide our customers with the best service possible. In addition to these metrics, BTS Research customers indicated that some of the reasons they select to work with us are:

• Trust in Critical Contributions to their projects.
• Enhances the company or drug portfolio.
• Increases their efficiency.
• Act as an extension of the company and support their needs.
• Higher return on investment.
• A science based approach to proof of concept.
• Appreciate dealing with professionals.
• Faster turn around.
• We conduct the work best.
• Save money.
• Assign and go.