ATWatch out, sector in danger! To the already long list of sectors of activity that are struggling to recruit is now added that of human health research, and more specifically of so-called clinical research, experimentation on humans.
Several studies published by France Biotech or the National Union of the Medical Technology Industry echo the tensions encountered when filling positions in research and development units. A surprising situation when not a day goes by without the results of clinical trials, the successes or failures of new experiments being put forward. Activity is at a peak: the number of clinical trials on the international referral portal Clinicaltrials.gov has recorded an average annual growth of nearly 35% for twenty years and more than 40% since 2015.
However, if today it is a recognized activity, it remains unknown. Designing, developing, carrying out and analyzing the results of a clinical trial is a long-term task that mobilizes many skills and expert teams: those of doctors and clinician-researchers, medical teams in charge of designing the inclusion protocol and from the definition of the budgets, the investigation teams ensuring the conduct and the good realization of the trials and the follow-up of the patients, without forgetting those of the analysts collecting the data in order to determine the results of the research.
It is therefore a complex subject, constantly changing, affected by the evolution of knowledge, the technical or numerical means available, and the various regulations related to the safety of the participants in the tests.
It is therefore not surprising that the needs for human resources are exploding, without there being any precise figures. To date, we only have parcel data, dated or approximate.
Human resources needs are exploding, without there being any precise figures
The figure of six thousand positions for thirty-two university hospitals nationwide given in a report by the Court of Auditors, according to a census carried out in 2014, is far from the reality of employment in the sector.
If we extrapolate to all the hospitals the evolution observed in ten years in two major university hospitals (Toulouse and the Hospices Civils de Lyon) whose research teams have increased by more than 60% since 2013, and that If we add to this the staff of companies specializing in the management of clinical trials, called Contract Research Organizations, pharmaceutical laboratories, the biomedical industry, HealthTech, we can estimate that the clinical research sector in France represents more sixty thousand jobs! Again, this is only an estimate and a number that will change considerably in the years to come… provided that the positions offered find takers.
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