Jul 17, 2025
In an episode titled "Inside the Bid: What Sponsors Need to Know About CRO Pricing, Pressure & Proposals", Kieran Canisius and I cover:
- how CRO budgets are actually quite flexible, especially if the sponsor and CRO collaborate well on scope
- most common misperceptions biopharmas have about CRO pricing, and what are NOT misconceptions
- what do CROs actually use to price projects?
- why two CROs never price the exact same way, and why that's a good thing
- why ever project is custom priced
- why change orders are a fact of life, in clinical research and other industries centered around long-term service projects
- why CRO unit prices change unexpectedly (from the sponsor's view), and how CROs create unforced errors here
- what "being easy to do business with" does and does not mean
- how to get a more thoughtful budget from your CRO for fundraising purposes
- the best RFP format I've ever seen
- unexpected serendipity around thoughtful RFP triage, where the two CROs Kieran has noticed have the strictest RFP triage just happen to be two CROs I consider as top growth performers
- why the stakes really are enormously high and emotionally charged for large change orders with small biotechs