In 2012, an all-time high of 28,000 principal investigators participated in FDA regulated research, according to a study in the March/April Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) Impact Report. However, compound annual growth in the number of active investigators was 0.8% in 2012 compared to 9.7% between 1992 and 2002. Nonetheless, North American PIs are still holding their own as the number of PIs based in North America is 61% compared to approximately 30% in emerging regions. The study also found that investigator turnover rate was high, with more than half of all investigators choosing not to conduct clinical trials in subsequent years. For more information on the Tufts CSDD study click here and for more information related to the study, click here.
