Patient Recruitment Services Market Projected to Grow to USD 5.3 Billion by 2030, Predicts Roots Analysis

News provided by

Mar 28, 2019, 11:30 ET

LONDON, March 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Roots Analysis has announced the addition of "Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Marker, 2019-2030" report to its list of offerings.

Pemba Lahmo, the principal analyst, stated, "A steadily increasing demand for study participants and the complexities associated with patient enrollment has imposed a significant burden on drug developer companies, prompting them to enlist the services of specialty service providers. Presently, close to 140 companies are actively offering patient recruitment and retention services. Majority of these players possess vast service portfolios and utilize diverse patient outreach methods to recruit study participants across different geographies and therapeutic indications."

The report presents opinions on several key aspects of the market. Among other elements, it includes:

A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of over 135 companies offering patient recruitment and retention services, including information on over 10 types of patient outreach methods, types of services offered ([A] patient recruitment (including pre-screening and Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Ethics Committee (EC) submission), [B] patient retention (considering various strategies, such as the use of study-branded gifts, study-branded reminders, providing education and support materials, reimbursement programs, transportation programs, patient engagement web site, patient reconnect programs, mobile applications to track patient engagement and others) and [C] other associated services (including site identification and selection, study feasibility / protocol development, project management, clinical trial monitoring and other services), year of establishment, geographical location, and size of company. The market landscape is fragmented, featuring a mix of small-sized (less than 50 employees, 69%), mid-sized (51-200 employees, 14%), and large-sized (more than 200 employees, 17%) companies. Examples of large-sized players engaged in this domain include (in alphabetical order, no selection criteria) Accelovance, Bioclinica, BMC Group, CROee, IQVIA, Klick Health, Synexus, Syneos Health and WCCT Global. On the other hand, examples of players that have recently (since 2015) entered the market include (in alphabetical order, no selection criteria) Access Clinical Research (2017), Clinically Media (2017), Orphanos (2017), Splash Clinical (2016), CarthagoPharma (2016), Clinspire Research (2016), Akcelis (2015) and PatientEvolution (2015).
An analysis of the most active regions (in terms of patient recruitment activity) based on the locations of headquarters of companies engaged in this domain, featuring schematic world map representations that highlight key hubs across the globe. Majority of the aforementioned service providers (80%) are based in North America and Europe. However, a growing proportion of such companies are presently emerging in the Asia-Pacific and other developing regions of the world. Examples of companies based in the latter regions include (in alphabetical order, no selection criteria) Clinical Trial Connect (CTC), Clinical Trial Group, nRollmed, S4 Research, SitePartner, TrialWire and RemediumOne. Specifically, around 35 companies provide their services globally. Examples of some of these players include (in alphabetical order, no selection criteria) Antidote, Bioclinica, Clariness, ClinicalConnection, PAREXEL, ThreeWire, and WCCT Global.
An insightful 2X2 representation of the results of a competitiveness analysis of various service providers (segregated into three peer groups based on their employee count (small-sized (1-50 employees), mid-sized (50-200 employees) and large (>200 employees)), highlighting capable players in this domain, based on their respective capabilities. It is worth highlighting that, close to 80% of the services providers claim to offer patient recruitment specific services, such as project management, assistance in institutional review board (IRB) / ethics committee (EC) submissions, core CRO services, site management, clinical trial monitoring, trial master file management, conducting meetings for staff / patients, and investigator grant management. Over 75 companies claim to provide patient retention services. In addition, more than 70 firms mention that cardiovascular, CNS and mental health disorders are their primary focus areas. Other therapeutic areas for which patient recruitment services are presently offered include (in decreasing order of number of associated service providers) oncological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory disorders, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, metabolic disorders, eye disorders, and rare diseases. It is also worth highlighting that 30 companies claim to provide services for recruiting patients in trials evaluating medical devices.
Comprehensive profiles of patient recruitment and retention service providers, featuring information on the location of their headquarters, year of establishment, patient recruitment services / platforms portfolio, recent developments and an informed future outlook.
An analysis of the partnerships that have been established during the period 2013-2018, covering outsourcing agreements, service alliances, acquisitions, joint ventures, mergers, technology licensing and development agreements, and other forms of partnerships. Most of the aforementioned deals were service alliances (34%), signed between companies to combine their respective capabilities to offer an expanded portfolio of services to their clients. Outsourcing agreements were the second most popular type, representing 30% of the total number of deals. Recent examples of outsourcing agreements include partnerships between Synexus and University of Exeter (2018), CROee and Pfizer (2018), and Foundation Medicine and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (2018). These were followed by acquisitions (20%), mergers (6%), technology development / licensing agreements (4%), joint ventures (3%), and other agreements (2%).
A review of emerging trends in the industry, including the use of social media, mobile technologies, EHRs and RWE, to overcome the challenges associated with patient recruitment and retention. During our research, we identified that more than 60% of the players claim to use social media platforms to enroll patients for clinical studies. Further, traditional broadcasting platforms, including TV, radio and newspaper, constitute the second most popular medium for patient outreach campaigns, being utilized by 41% of stakeholders in this domain. Other popular outreach methods include print advertisement (32%), patient advocacy groups (32%), physician referrals (30%), cold call / call center (28%), patient networks (27%), proprietary patient databases (27%), direct mail / e-mail (24%), and EMRs / pharmacy / health care data (14%).
A detailed market forecast analysis, based on several parameters, offering an informed perspective on the likely evolution of this market over the period 2019-2030. The future opportunity was segmented across [A] key therapeutic areas (oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, CNS disorders, respiratory disorders, metabolic disorders, and others), [B] steps in the patient recruitment process (pre-screening and screening), [C] phases of development (phase I, phase II, phase III and phase IV), and [D] different global regions (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world). Driven by the steady growth in the volume of clinical trials, the patient recruitment services market is expected to grow at an annualized rate of nearly ~4% between 2019 and 2030. Based on the aforementioned estimates, clinical trials evaluating drugs for cancer indications are expected to contribute to 23% of the revenues generated within the market by 2030; this is likely to be followed by trials evaluating therapies for infectious diseases (15%), cardiovascular diseases (15%), CNS disorders (10%), respiratory disorders (7%), metabolic disorders (6%), and other indications (24%).

The report features inputs from a number of eminent industry stakeholders. Lahmo remarked, "Most of the experts we spoke to concur on the opinion that the rate of outsourcing of patient recruitment operations is likely to increase at a fast pace due to steady rise in global clinical trials, demand for highly specific study participants, and complex inclusion-exclusion criteria. In fact, some stakeholders expect close to 40% of such operations to be outsourced in the future." The report features detailed transcripts of discussions held with the following experts:

Simon Klaasen (Co-founder and Managing Director, Link2Trials)
Hagit Nof (Chief Operation Officer and Business Development, nRollmed)
Paul Ivsin (Managing Director, Seeker Health)

The research covers detailed profiles and assesses product portfolios of several companies, including (illustrative list, may not be comprehensive):