A Candidate-Driven Market for Clinical Trials

Many clinical trials were stopped during the pandemic, and there were also delays to approvals for new clinical trials to go ahead. Now that we are coming out of the main restrictions of the pandemic, clinical trials are ramping up, and need clinical monitoring professionals in order to meet strict regulatory requirements.

What is clinical trials monitoring?

This is an essential part of clinical trials governance. Monitoring ensures that the trial is being conducted within its agreed remit and covers a wide range of processes and procedures, including:

• Regulatory, funding and legislative requirements
• Integrity of the clinical trial data
• Participant rules and protections
• Safety and overall design of the trial

This monitoring is usually conducted in one of three ways: on-site monitoring, remote monitoring and central monitoring. It can be carried out by an experienced in-house team or by an independent team. The selection and make-up of the team is often determined by the type of trial.

Finding the right expertise

This is a niche field, and there is now a demand for professional, experienced clinical trial monitors to work across a wide range of global trials. It’s vital that trial directors find individuals and teams who are thorough, diligent and precise. Trial monitors often have the power to raise significant concerns that can cause the trial to be stopped, so it’s important to find people who understand the complexity and significance of the role and have the experience and training to support the trial with an independent view.

A candidate-driven market

As with most high-level recruitment at the moment, clinical trials monitoring roles are competing for the best candidates. Trial monitoring is often carried out on a contract basis rather than as a permanent in-house role, and so the companies conducting those trials need to be sure that they are offering the salary, benefits and working conditions to attract the best candidates.

Part of this is having a good relationship with a reliable recruiter. They will have a good network of experienced and interested candidates, alongside a good understanding of the clinical trials landscape and the needs for high quality monitoring candidates.

And the important thing here is that your recruiter has access to ‘interested’ candidates. Often, employers get quite a long way down the recruitment process, only to find that the candidates have simply negotiated a better rate with their existing employer, or were just testing the market. This results in an expensive recruitment process and a lack of trust in the recruiter.

By working with someone who clearly pre-qualifies candidates to ensure they are genuinely interested in moving to a new position, clinical trial leaders are putting themselves in the best position to hire in a candidate-driven market. Why not take a look at our latest salary and trends survey to see what’s happening in the clinical recruitment market right now?

Whether you're interested in permanent or contract resource, get in touch today to discuss your requirements.