Chairman's Message

We, JCROA, the Japan CRO Association, have smoothly grown as the organization of enterprises supporting all businesses related to clinical trials as well as the assurance of reliability for pharmaceutical companies, since its foundation in 1994. We have continued to progress and support businesses all through these years.

Currently, 46 companies (14 - regular member companies and 32- associate member companies) joined JCROA and its annual sales turnover has grown to $1.53 billion, the number of employees today is 14,100 and over 800 newly hired grad students in 2017. We have invested significant effort to increase visibility and recognition in course of the first 10 years to demonstrate and reinforce the role of CROs and consecutively to enhance quality, such as human resource development during in course of the last decade. Now, our business has expanded to not only clinical studies for medical products and medical devices but also the services of post-marketing, products such as regenerative medicine and related technologies, and have grown to be a key player for drug discovery and development.

In the meantime, our country has been facilitating together to build the system and foundation for providing the most-advanced level of medical care and the promotion & development of integrated medical research by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) vitalization plan of clinical research and its globalization. CROs have been working together aiming at becoming an “independent player” of clinical trial execution and setting a goal for the coming decade, following the scope of requesting clinical studies and its management shifting “partial to entire or /and partial” by means of amendment of GCP Ordinance in 2012.

We are moving ahead from doing only contracted business to strengthen the scientific nature and expertise in various fields related to clinical trials. We are collaborating with companies such as IT, Logistics for investigational products, Site Management Organizations (SMO), patient recruitment agencies and present various proposals for efficiency of clinical trials, quality improvement of processes to pharmaceutical and medical device companies, medical institutions and governments. Thus, we are fully dedicated to support development of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and post-marketing studies, to make new treatments available to patients.

Each JCROA member company should work with high ethics and adherence to compliance, which will result in ensuring the reliability of contracted business and data obtained from the clinical trials.

Under the circumstances, JCROA actively steer the business with upholding five objects as follows, “human resource development”, “efficiency of clinical trials”, “business structure innovation”, “collaboration with regulatory agencies”, “information strategies”. We have totally renewed our website so as to convey useful, easy to learn information for our clients, job-hunting students and professionals and JCROA members since February 2017.

I do hope you will give me further guidance and encouragement in the future.