It was great to be back at the annual DIA meeting after missing it for the past three years. The food they provided was as bad as ever but luckily, there were many tasty options right outside the Convention Center and lots of good friends to dine with!

The sessions were diverse as usual with most of the outsourcing sessions focused on the strategic alliance models adopted by the large CROs and large pharmaceutical companies. There are many other models out there that are less risky and less expensive – I hope that alternative models will be addressed in future meetings! Clinical trials in China continues to be a focus though this seems to be another risky and expensive strategy  given the regulatory challenges to running trials there.

It looked like the Exhibit Hall got larger, but maybe it was just all the strange big open spaces in the middle of the hall which made it appear larger. CROs seems to be making up a smaller portion of the exhibitors with smaller booth sizes, compared to the technology vendors (Great reception Oracle!) who were making a big splash.

It seems like there is still a great opportunity for regionally focused CROs and I had a lot of promising conversations at the meeting. I will be spending the next few months meeting with clients in the United States. Please get in touch with me if you would like to learn more about August Research!