December 15, 2021

Site Management Organizations (SMOs): A Trending Term in the Clinical Trial Domain

By Rohit Pareek Clinical Practice, CLINICAL TRIAL PLANNING, Clinical Trials, Site Management Organizations, virtual clinical trials 1 Comment

Innovators in the pharmaceutical industry are constantly developing ways to improve the process of conducting clinical trials and managing research sites. Amidst other alternatives, outsourcing various trial operations to a specialized service provider, such as site management organizations (SMOs), has emerged as a viable option for various developers. The advantages of engaging such specialized service providers are numerous and enable sponsors to meet their clinical research timelines. In addition, SMOs can facilitate rapid patient recruitment, reduce study timelines, and manage the entire clinical trial processes and administrative work for their clients. Moreover, drug / medical device developers, and even the contract research organizations (CROs), can employ the therapeutic and operational expertise, global site networks and well-established processes and tools offered by SMOs in order to carry out their clinical research and site management activities in a cost and time-efficient manner.

Players Engaged in Offering Clinical Trial Site Management Services

Currently, around 245 industry players are actively involved in the clinical trial site management domain. The SMOs industry is presently highly fragmented, featuring the presence of small companies (57%), mid-sized players (31%) and large firms (12%). Some examples of large players include (in alphabetical order) CMIC, IQVIA, Novotech, Parexel, Pharm-Olam, Syneos Health, Veeda Clinical Research, Veristat and WCG.

Site Management Organizations (SMOs): A Trending Term in the Clinical Trial Domain

Which Company has an Edge Over Other Companies?

With so many players in the market, it may become baffling to decide on which company would serve your purpose. Some companies do have advantages over other competitors, in terms of their experience, therapeutic expertise and number of site management services being offered. With the intention to develop a better understanding of the overall potential and capabilities of industry players involved in this domain, we carried out a company competitiveness analysis of the various stakeholders, based on location of their headquarters and company size.

The Increasing Interest in this Field is also Reflected in Recent Partnership Activity

Since 2016, partnership activity within the site management domain has increased with an annualized growth rate of 73%. Service alliance and clinical trial agreements have captured a substantial share in the partnerships related to clinical trial site management, during the period of 2016-2021. This was followed by acquisitions, which have captured a significant share of the partnerships inked in this domain. Further, the maximum number of partnerships in site management domain was observed in 2021, followed by those signed in 2020. This rise in partnership activity since 2020 can be attributed to the rise in number of clinical trials conducted to evaluate a number of therapeutic interventions being developed for COVID-19 and other therapeutics.

Increasing Number of Clinical Trials has Unfolded Many Novel Opportunities for Clinical Trials Site Management Service Providers

With the increase in number of clinical studies, a number of drug sponsors are relying on specialized service providers, such as SMOs, in order to better manage and monitor their clinical trial research sites.

The Site Management Organizations Market is Anticipated to Grow at a CAGR of 9.8%, During 2021-2035

With the growing complexity, as well as rise in the number of clinical trials being registered, the market for SMOs is expected to grow at a steady pace in the coming years. The opportunity is anticipated to be well-distributed across various therapeutic areas, trial phases, type of interventions, and geographical regions.