Tufts Center study shows significant time savings in delivering therapies to patients with Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Accelerator Drug Development 360° CDMO and CRO solutions
New research shows integrated services can reduce Phase I-III study times by up to nearly three years, generating strong ROI for biotech and biopharma customers
23 Jun 2025
Thermo Fisher Scientific has presented the findings of new research by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) demonstrating the benefits of the Accelerator™ Drug Development 360° CDMO and CRO solutions in helping biotech and biopharma companies speed life-changing medicines to patients. The findings show Thermo Fisher’s integrated services can potentially reduce drug development timelines by up to nearly three years, representing significant time savings on the average 10 to 15 years it takes to commercialize a new drug.
Streamlining drug development is crucial for biotech and biopharma companies facing high development costs, regulatory complexity and the urgent need to bring safe, new medicines to market more quickly. Drug developers traditionally have relied on multiple supplier partners for bioprocessing, clinical development, clinical supply and manufacturing solutions; however, this decentralized approach leads to inefficiency, miscommunication and delay. Each month of delay in a Phase III clinical trial can result in up to $8 million in lost revenue resulting from shortened market exclusivity and deferred market entry.
The Tufts CSDD study demonstrates that working with an integrated partner to provide contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and clinical research organization (CRO) solutions can help speed and streamline the complex journey of drug development.
Accelerator™ Drug Development provides a customizable suite of manufacturing, clinical research and clinical supply chain services at every stage of development. To date, more than 120 biotech and biopharma companies have worked with Thermo Fisher across its integrated CDMO and CRO solutions on more than 350 protocols across therapeutic areas, small molecule, large molecule and advanced therapies.
The Tufts CSDD study reported that using integrated services from Phase I through Phase III can reduce drug development times by up to 34 months. Researchers also found that integrated CRO/CDMO services can generate up to $63 million in net financial benefits for drug sponsors, a return on investment of up to 113 times the initial investment.
In considering multiple scenarios across phases of drug development and different levels of investment in integrated services, researchers found demonstrable time savings and ROI across the board, reflecting the benefits of integration, such as cross-functional program coordination, collaboration, oversight, planning and communication.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Joseph DiMasi, director of economic analysis and research associate professor, Tufts University, said, “The cost of developing new drugs is exacerbated by operational inefficiencies from the siloing of clinical research, drug manufacturing and supply chain functions. Our findings underscore the strategic importance of integrated services as a driver of value. Drug sponsors considering this approach should consider the degree of integration that would drive the most value for their programs. Our study reveals that while fully integrated service provision yields the greatest financial benefit, even partial integration offers significant value, especially for the later phases of clinical development.”