Did you know that Latin America is considered one of the best areas to perform a Clinical Trial, mainly because of the huge range of possibilities offered for clinical research?
Starting by its high recruitment and retention rates (LATAM boasts a surprisingly interesting cost/efficiency ratio) along with the advanced information technology, Latin America counts with a high percentage of bilingual investigators trained in the USA or in Europe. Furthermore, the Active Regulatory Agencies have been overseeing their research activity for 20 years and ensuring its proper alignment with ICH/GCP guidelines.
Because of their effectiveness, major pharmaceutical companies and CROs are present in the largest countries (Brazil, Mexico and Argentina), obtaining benefits from the long list of advantages they offer:
Considerable markets for developed products
With a population of 600 million people, Latin America remains a strong market to sell approved drugs: in fact, IMS Health estimated in 2017 that they generate 10% of global pharmaceutical sales.
Very reasonable operative costs for clinical research services.
Professional fees for investigators and doctors are low compared to same ones in USA/Canada/Europe. Furthermore, translation costs are reduced because Spanish is the main spoken language.
Exceptional environment
The regulatory environment is aligned, controlled and has a lot of experience with ICH-GCP guidelines compliance. Also, Clinical Research Masters Degree have been available since 2007, along with different post-graduate research courses.
The continent’s time zones
A very relevant detail is that, as the continent’s time zones are nearly the same as in the United States, delays due to time differences are less common, which is also very convenient for interactions with headquarters offices in USA and clinical labs in LATAM.
An Enthusiastic and Qualified Investigator Community.
Highly educated medical teams are thrilled to take part in clinical trials from foreign companies because they can enroll their patients in studies with treatments still not available in the area. They are also motivated to add this studies to their CV as it is a sign of academic distinction.
Adherence to ICH GCPs
Medical facilities are audited on a regular basis and all Latin American countries have regulations which fulfil legal and ethical international standards.
Ethnically diverse population for excellent recruitment performance.
The diversity of races and ethnicities eager to participate in Clinical Trials is one of the most attractive reasons to choose this region to perform your study. Also, researchers can use these countries to compare indicators with the northern hemisphere for seasonal variations (such as respiratory diseases).
Willing and compliant patients.
Latin Americans have access to great healthcare and medication so they are fully aware of the benefits of participating in a Clinical Trial. They tend to be fairly close to their doctors, which also favors patient compliance and retention in the trial.
Easy access to patients.
Recruitment efforts and trial logistics might be dramatically simplified because most Latin Americans live within large urban areas, so a high percentage of operative costs can be reduced.
The Most Urbanized Area of the World
80% of Latin Americans live in cities, and the rate is expected to reach 90% in the next few years according to The United Nations estimations. Sao Paulo (20 million), Mexico City (19 million), Buenos Aires (13.6 million) and Rio de Janeiro (12 million) rank in the top 25 largest metropolitan centers in the world, so they are particularly interesting to run studies of pollution related diseases.
An active, but still emerging, Trial Market
As we have seen, Latin America is a great environment to perform a Clinical Trial, but surprisingly, it’s still far from being saturated: there are only 1,427 active industry studies across the region and 90% of them are concentrated in only six countries (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia), so there are still infinite possibilities in Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay or Venezuela.
Taking all benefits together, we should look at Latin America as a continent with an infinite number of possibilities in terms of clinical trials, as well as surprisingly European standards and above all, reduced costs.
If you are considering starting a clinical trial in any country in Latin America, contact us and discover how our local experts can help you to achieve success.