Who Funds Clinical Trials?

Similar to board members overseeing top corporations, sponsors guide clinical trials toward successful outcomes. The best performing operations have committed leaders who keep the end goal in mind. Likewise, a sponsor’s oversight is critical to investigational drug development.

Sponsors play an important role in clinical trials

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), clinical trial sponsors may be “an individual who both initiates and conducts an investigation, and under whose immediate direction the investigational drug is administered or dispensed.” It is important to note that a sponsor does not actually work directly with volunteers or conduct medical research.

Sponsor’s key responsibilities include:

1. Ensuring all Investigational New Drug (IND) regulatory documentation is submitted in a timely matter to the FDA;
2. Assessing the viability of a clinical study plan;
3. Designing every study to address key research questions related to the medical treatment or product;
4. Developing beneficial procedures to help guide a study towards a successful outcome;
5. Staffing the study with trial with the right doctor, or principal investigator;
6. Working with investors to ensure a study has sufficient budget, from start to finish;
7. Keeping the board apprised of the investigational drug’s approval status;
8. And monitoring the continued progress of a clinical trial.

Individuals or organizations can sponsor clinical studies

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, clinical trial sponsors may be:

• Government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA)
• Private individuals, companies or organizations
• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices companies
• Health care institutions, such as academic medical centers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs)

Additionally, physicians, professors, or researchers may also choose to sponsor a clinical study. These individuals are also known as sponsor-investigators, as they personally conduct research and gather data.

Sponsors oversee specific study budgets and needs

Sponsors help secure the budget necessary for a clinical trial by facilitating grants and soliciting investor contributions. Additionally, the costs associated with a given trial may range depending on the following variables:

1. Number of participants
2. Necessary staff size for study completion
3. Pertinent research materials necessary
4. Patient compensation,
5. Duration of clinical study 

Learn more about Clinical Trials

At OCRC, we pride ourselves on the policies we put into place to keep everyone safe — both our staff and study volunteers. OCRC recognizes the importance of timely start-up and thorough documentation processing from initial contact through completion. Our streamlined and thorough planning, coordination and monitoring process ensures both efficiency and exacting quality.

We offer a variety of clinical trials and research studies in our state-of-the-art clinical research facility. All study volunteers receive all treatments and medical care related to the trial. Additionally, participants may receive compensation for time and travel. Health insurance is also never a requirement.

If you’re interested in signing up, please tell us a little more about yourself in the Contact section of our home page and we will respond to you to determine your eligibility for current and future studies.