MASS SPECTROSCOPY IN THE CRO WORLD

The rapid growth of the market for the outsourcing of the drug development pipeline to Contract Research Organisations (CRO) has been phenomenal since the turn of the century. Today it is estimated to be just below the $20 billion per annum mark and estimated to grow to $23.7bn by 2010[1]. Integral to the growth of this market place is the skill of Scientists such as the Principal Investigators (PI) who lead and are legally responsible for the conduct of the studies. They develop assays but also have to be extremely competent with high end Analytical Instrumentation such as LC-MS/MS, which is very much the workhorse of many CRO Laboratories. Bernie Monaghan Editor for the Separations Science and Spectroscopy sections of International Labmate, visited BioAnalytical Systems (BASi) based in Warwickshire, UK to speak with James Hillis and Mark Wareing the Operations and Managing Directors respectively of this medium sized CRO to discuss the current issues of workload, customer expectations and identifying and meeting technical challenges for the future.