Pharmaceutical Clinical Contract Peripheral Services, Global, 2025–2030

As trial volumes normalize after the COVID-19 pandemic, pharma and biopharma companies are re-focusing on their drug development pipelines. As a result, the market has been creating an increasing number of clinical trial outsourcing opportunities for CROs, with these service providers also refining their processes to ensure better clinical trial turnarounds and improved time to market. In this context, the global CRO industry was valued at $66.39 billion in 2024, and it is expected to register a CAGR of 10.7% from 2024 to 2030, reaching $122.13 billion in 2030. Across the global pharma market, the overall CRO outsourcing penetration rate ranges from 45%-50%, depending on the service type.

In addition to full-service CROs operating in the global CRO industry, there is a surge of peripheral service-focused CROs, also referred to as specialized/niche CROs. These companies exclusively focus on supportive functions, including biostatistics, lab testing, pharmacovigilance, post-market surveillance, and investigational product (IP) management. These activities support the core clinical research functions, ensuring timely completion and required outcomes.

As the emphasis on biologics drug development grows, small-to-mid-sized and emerging biopharma companies are contributing more than 50% of the pipelines. Apart from trial-related services, such as patient recruitment, site selection and management, and investigator recruitment, clinical trial peripheral services, such as pharmacovigilance, safety testing, central lab services, medical writing, IP management, data management, and biostatistics, have been gaining traction, with pharma sponsors increasingly outsourcing these specific activities to CROs.

This is leading to the extensive use of the functional service provider (FSP) model targeting specific trial-related ancillary or peripheral activities. Though a significant share of the clinical pipeline is contributed by small-to-mid-sized and emerging biopharma companies, the need for peripheral services through FSP models is expected to witness a sharp rise, especially from large pharma companies looking to optimize trial costs.

Moreover, the industry will witness a shift to a hybrid FSO/FSP model, as companies aim to augment their clinical trial activities through better risk mitigation. As a result, these companies will look for outsourcing partners to meet their clinical research needs, paving the way for both full-service outsourcing and FSP models, which focus on supporting peripheral activities, such as analytical testing, data management, and biostatistics.

Key Issues Addressed
What are the general industry trends? What are the specific trends for peripheral activities within clinical trials?
What are the key drivers triggering large-scale outsourcing of clinical development?
What key emerging business models are providing a competitive advantage to pharma sponsors? How is this trend supporting industry convergence?
Who are the leading participants driving market growth?
What is the growth opportunity for small-to-mid-sized CRO companies amidst 1,500+ competitors?
How is the application of technology supporting the growth of the CRO peripheral activities landscape? Which are the fastest-growing peripheral activities in the CRO industry?