By eCliniqua Staff

August 4, 2011 | ClearTrial, maker of clinical trial operations software for planning and budgeting trials, released results of a survey earlier this week assessing how life sciences professionals forecast and budget for clinical trials.

Almost half of the survey respondents reported that their typical variance for clinical studies was at least 11% and often greater. Twenty percent reported a variance of more than 16% in their costs. Of those created budgets, 21% of respondents were highly confident in the accuracy, 10% were not confident at all, and 69% were only somewhat confident.

Fully 83% of respondents noted that they required at least one to two weeks to create a ballpark budget for a clinical study, while 50% said they required three weeks or more. 62% of respondents reported requiring at least three weeks to roll up individual study budgets into a budget portfolio. Microsoft Excel is the predominant method for clinical study forecasting and budgeting, being used by 57% of respondents. 

Full study results can be downloaded here: http://info.cleartrial.com/budgeting-survey.html