The fifth edition of the annual BioSpectrum Asia Pacific clinical research organization (CRO) Survey, which is conducted in association with CyberMedia Research (CMR), yet again identifies the latest trends, issues, perspectives and insights regarding the CRO industry in Asia Pacific (APAC).

While the 2013 survey revealed many hindrances facing the industry, including lack of optimum regulatory efficiency, training of personnel, limited development partnerships between CROs and pharma firms; it also reveals many promising findings, including high willingness to participate in clinical trials among countries like China, India, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Furthermore, the CRO sector in APAC is witnessing a major boom leveraging on the growth of logistics and supply chain management in the region.

According to the respondents of the fifth BioSpectrum Asia-CMR Asia Pacific Annual Survey of the Clinical and Contract Research Organizations 2013, India, China and Australia are the top three countries for clinical trials, followed closely by South Korea. The survey findings are in-line with the previous year's results. Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Japan are slowly making their presence felt on the CRO landscape. The survey respondents cite the ease of patient access, low cost, and market access for their focus in the markets, to be the reason for market expansion. Also, good regulation was highlighted by some CRO executives as one of the top three factors.

Hotspots for patient recruitment and clinical trials
According to the survey respondents of the fifth BioSpectrum-CMR Asia Pacific Annual Survey of the Clinical and Contract Research Organizations 2013, China (30 percent) and India (26 percent), with their vast population, are the two key countries wherein the willingness to participate in clinical trials is high, followed by South Korea with 15 percent. These trends are in-line with the historical trends captured by BioSpectrum Asia and CMR over previous years.