What is a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) job all about?
Many people trying to obtain their first job in the pharmaceutical industry have a particular role in mind: the Clinical Research Associate, or CRA. These positions are seen as desirable because they typically offer relatively high salaries, a lot of independence, and are frequently home-based. In this post, I’m going to discuss the CRA role in detail: what do CRAs actually do? How does one obtain a CRA job? And what are the long-term career prospects for a new CRA? As the name suggests, a CRA’s role in drug development begins at the clinical research stage, which is the point when human testing begins. CRAs may be involved with Phase I, II, III, or IV (post-marketing) clinical trials. A CRA’s main responsibility is to monitor clinical trials (and in fact some companies refer to CRAs as monitors). A CRA will travel to the clinical sites where trials are being conducted to ensure that all of the activity relating to the trial is in compliance with the protocol and ICH-GCP (Good Clinical
