Thoughts from a Lab Rat

Spaulding Clinical, located about 40 miles north of Milwaukee, has been open now for about a year. While only one study has been completed thus far, the current study cohorts comprises of around 240 volunteers. As with any new business, it takes time to develop a client base. As studies are completed and Spaulding’s reputation increases, so should the amount of studies available to potential volunteers.
The facility offers volunteers the comforts of home while on the road. Each room accommodates two volunteers with private televisions and ample room to store personal belongings. The common areas are open and bright with ample seating areas. The facility encompasses the modern commercial requirements while still providing a homely atmosphere. Other than the lack of studies, volunteers have had little to complain about.
If you live in Wisconsin or Illinois, give Spaulding Clinical a try. Be sure to tell them you heard about them from Just Another Lab Rat!
(800) 597-4507
525 S. Silverbrook
West Bend, WI 53095

What is a Clinical Research Organization? A Clinical Research Organization also known as Contract Research Organization, supports the Pharmaceutical industry in many ways with the primary objective of conducting clinical research trials. There are thousands of sites across the US. They can be as small as sole practitioner or as large as a hospital. The major clinics that I profile on my site only make up a small percentage of the total sites as the majority of the sites are the small sites that do condition specific trials (patient studies). IE, a weight-loss doctor would only conduct weight-loss studies, a diabetes clinic would only conduct diabetes studies and so on. The major clinics, more commonly known as Phase I clinics conducts studies covering nearly all conditions. In fact, what the medication is for is usually a mute point as Phase I trials gather the pharmacology information rather than to see if the drug actually works for its intended purpose.

Every CRO is slightly different, in the way they manage the trials. It is a competitive industry and CRO’s with marginal results will be passed up for CRO’s with the best track records. What kind of results are the CRO’s trying to get? The most accurate results. This primarily focus on having all the data collected uniformly and accurately. It is widely assumed that the CRO’s decide how to carry out the studies. This is false. The sponsor (drug company) comes to the CRO with their requirements of the study and the CRO conducts the study as requested.

The bottom line is that CRO’s are businesses, not charities. They are here to make money, not give it away. The money they pay you is a stipend for services rendered. Operating a clinic is not as simple as it seems. It takes a large amount of preparation to run a study. It is also very expensive. It costs on average $450 to screen a potential research subject. And that is regardless of whether the subject is accepted into the study. For the CRO’s, it is imperative that the studies are carried out correctly. And you should be equally invested in that goal. If a sponsor gets poor results from a CRO, it will choose a different CRO in the future which in turn will reduce your study opportunities. So be appreciative of the chance you have to not only help medical science but to also earn a little extra change in the process.

I have heard this question many times this year and have often wondered that myself. In general, studies run in cycles. If you were to take one study drug and follow it through it’s lifecycle which may last one or two studies or all the way to market and beyond which could include dozens of studies, it can take ten years or longer to complete the minimum required studies. With that said, some sponsors may choose to run most of the studies at one CRO which in turn can limit the amount of other studies a clinic can run simultaneously. You also have to consider the size of a clinic. The smaller the clinic, the fewer large subject studies can be ran at one time. Whereas a large clinic can run many large studies at one time. Finally, the process of preparing a study to be ran can be lengthy, especially multiple cohorts since each group of subjects will be analyzed before the next group to see if there are any concerning trends. So, just because a clinic or many clinics seem to have fewer studies than normal does not indicate problems with the industry or with the clinic. It is also important to note that there will naturally be slowdowns throughout the year such as around holidays and towards the end of the summer when a large portion of the subject population returns to college. So, don’t worry. Studies come and go. You just have to catch them at the right time.