ISR Reports: Covance Receives Top Ratings in Phase IV Benchmarking Study

Industry Standard Research (ISR) today announced the availability of their newest CRO Benchmarking report, 2012 CRO Quality Benchmarking – Phase IV Service Providers, which provides service quality profiles for 10 Phase IV CROs.

“Covance received the highest marks across a number of ISR’s measurements and more than any other Phase IV CRO surveyed,” explained Kevin Olson, CEO of ISR. “These above average ratings, along with sturdy brand perceptions, led Covance to also receive top marks in ISR’s Customer Loyalty rating – a compilation of Overall Satisfaction, Willingness to Recommend, and Likelihood to Use Again measurements.”

ISR’s report compiles data from 141 service encounters to measure the service quality of Phase IV CROs across 19 service dimensions, including attributes like Meeting Overall Project Timelines, Speed of Site Start-up, Therapeutic Expertise, Speed of Patient Recruitment, and Up-front Contingency Planning/Risk Management.

In addition to service quality ratings, ISR’s report also provides an analysis of sponsors’ Phase IV outsourcing behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and intentions; sponsors also rank attributes that drive the selection of Phase IV service providers. “More sponsors chose Low Cost as the primary driver of selection than any of the other 22 choices," Olson explained. "Price becomes even more significant because Low Cost also ranked highest when respondents were asked which attributes were gaining in importance."

ISR’s report provides sponsors and service providers with unique opportunities to evaluate clinical services.

“Sponsors can leverage the service encounters of 64 other professionals, not just their own, to evaluate their choices against their organizational needs.” Olson continued. “For service providers, the report provides unbiased customer insight and feedback on the quality of their services (and their competitors’ services), allowing for a more thorough evaluation of products and services.”

The report includes full profiles for 10 Phase IV CROs: BioClinica, Covance, ICON, INC Research, PharmaNet/i3, PAREXEL, PPD, PRA, Quintiles, and UBC.