CRO: Contract Research Organizations

Research Companies under contract are currently called « CRO », abbreviation of "Contract Research Organization". There are companies to which the pharmaceutical/cosmetic industry can outsource the planning, realization and the follow up of clinical trials (drugs’ tests, cosmetic products’ tests) on healthy volunteers or patients.

The services which CROs can offer include:

• protocol conception
• recruitment of healthy volunteers or patients
• realisation of the research protocol
• laboratory measures
• case report forms (CRF)
• statistical analysis of the results
• request for external expert resources (imaging,...)
• coordination of different centres (for multicenter studies)
• submission of the dossier to the competent authorities (FDA,...)