Premier Research

Please share your feedback about working for Premier Research. I know that no CRO is great, but how do they compare? Thanks in advance.

 

Has PRA management and there has been a mass exodus of staff at all levels.

 

All of the CROs are full of brand-new managers at every level. Premier feedback has been good on sites, but the reviews are all at least a year old. Anyone a current employee? How do you like it? specifics!

 

There are execs from PRA, Inc, PPD, Quintiles,Parexcel, Covance, so I'm wondering why someone thinks its only PRA execs? Look on their website at the management team its not all one CRO. Perhaps they are collecting the best practices from more than one CRO eh?

 

I think that there has been an exodus from the huge CROs because they are no longer good places to work. Too much administration and over-allocation of staff is all too common. Miserable employees do not equal a great finished product. Will the experience that the managerial group brings to Premier make it a better place to work for us road warriors who need an occasional break from the road? I wonder if work-life balance is any better at Premier?

 

I agree completely especially around over allocation. But I am wondering where the people are going. I would love to leave my company but I am afraid that a smaller CRO will get bought (or worse not survive changes in the industry)

 

I think it's worth the risk. If the small CRO gets bought, you will most likely be absorbed into the new anyway, but at least you made a try at improving your situation. I think that the only thing that will wake up some of those big CROs is lawsuits and damages. Including employment law cases for overallocation of personnel. I think it's only a matter of time before a CRA or a group of CRAs finally takes it to a law office.

 

Mass exodus is right; grave yard crew in Stats and medical writing now. Monitors are over worked, underpaid -recruiting has been trying to get more monitors, but people end up leaving shortly after due to workload.
Support really is based on direct line management - some are better than others. Don't expect promotions unless someone leaves. Little 'official' growth; lots of added responsibilities

 

Are you speaking of Premier? Or of an exodus from one of the larger CROs? I would consider Premier to be mid-size. Which is not a bad thing to be, necessarily.

 

At Premier currently, it is bad here. Never seen such a lack of accountability. I would not recommend this to my worst enemy. Check and re-check with current employees what your potential job title entails. A few here were "misinformed" during the interview into positions totally different than they were told. New management (form PRA, we here) are mostly clueless with 1 or 2 exceptions. I would stay where you are at, seriously.

 

My experience with Premier has been good. There are exceptions, and every situation is entirely what you make of it, of course. There is opportunity here if you care about what you are doing and you take it seriously. Much more so than in the big CROs. I have worked both. Positive: I don't feel like a robot on an assembly line at Premier. Negative: it can be difficult to get your ideas enacted, like anyplace else-- but I think your odds are better in the smaller environment. I will say this though: you should already know what you're doing before you come here. No amateurs. Line managers that I have come across are very good.

 

I am a monitor for Premier. I do have a lot of experience, and I believe that I have a great grasp on conducting clinical trials. That said, I am happier here at Premier than I have been at other CROs. All monitors everywhere are overworked. Just check the boards. You will not find anyone complaining about having too much free time. I think that Premier is making an honest attempt to address this issue by lowering the monthly metrics per CRA -- to reflect reality. The other CROs have their heads in the clouds if they think that monitors are going to be effective conducting 8-9 visits per month and writing 12-20 page reports on each visit. Add to that the travel and the administrative workload, including meetings and maintaining CEUs, SOPs, FDA or GCP updates...the list goes on. No wonder no one can keep good CRAs. When I checked the Salary.com stats, it looks like the cumulative shelf life of the average CRA over a lifetime is about 10 years at most, then they get out of the industry. And all of that monitoring experience is lost. Premier seems to me to be an up-and-comer. They are still hungry, still working out best practices. I hope they don't end up going the route of the other big CROs with huge overhead to support. As a monitor, I would recommend them. They put the personal responsibility back into the hands of the person (the employee, the monitor) in many ways: higher pay but you handle some of the other stuff yourself like saving to your own Roth (they do have a % match on regular 401k) and office phone (the higher pay makes it work out- do the math! The phone system they supply is meh). I personally prefer their system of trip reporting because I am not as dependent on having to be online for everything. I can work literally anywhere and get it done.