PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, July 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Survey Highlights Trends In eCTD Migration And Submissions Outsourcing And Provides Insights Into Regulatory Product Management Trends Across North America And Europe

The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters today announced the early findings of its 2008 Liquent Regulatory Affairs Trends Survey. The survey attracted respondents from across the globe representing small, medium and large pharmaceutical companies and provides a unique insight into emerging and future trends in regulatory product management usage and adoption.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080424/NYTH069LOGO )

Now in its sixth year and frequently sourced by pharmaceutical journals and publications across the world, this survey has become the premier benchmark of global regulatory submission trends offering timely insights into how pharmaceutical regulatory professionals use technology today and how they plan to harness technology in the future.

There were 137 Regulatory Affairs professionals working in Life Sciences companies across the globe who participated in this survey. The survey concentrates on four key areas: Technology Usage Trends, including both submission publishing software and other desktop software, Document Management System usage, Regulatory Outsourcing trends, and Regulatory trends including use or future use of the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD).

The demographic make-up of the respondent population is similar to previous years with almost one third working in large pharmaceutical companies (32%) and more than a third working in small to medium companies (36%). Another 10% of respondents work for biotechnology companies. There were significantly more respondents from Contract Research Organizations (CROs) in 2008 (10%) than in 2007 (4%). 68% of those surveyed are from the United States and the majority of the remaining respondents are from Europe, with France (4%), Switzerland (4%), the UK (3%) and Germany (3%) the most highly represented.

Survey highlights include:

Technology Usage:

-- Almost all (92%) of the survey respondents make regulatory submissions, a slight increase on 2007 (90%); current use of paper and electronic submissions has remained the same since 2007. -- Three-quarters (75%) are using submission publishing software, similar to 2007 (67%). Approximately one-third (31%) of those respondents not currently using software are very likely to implement submission publishing software into their process. -- As in 2007, the SAFE initiative has not yet taken hold in most companies surveyed: only 2% of respondents are currently addressing it. However, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of companies that are currently using technology to support the FDA Gateway, up to 19% this year, from 9% in 2007.

Regulatory Outsourcing Trends:

-- 30% of respondents do not outsource any of their regulatory operations. -- Printing (28%) was the regulatory operation outsourced the most by respondents.

Regulatory Trends:

-- Eight in ten (83%) of respondents intend to migrate to the eCTD, with 20% of these reporting they will migrate within the next year.

"This year's survey has once again attracted respondents from across the breadth of the global life sciences industry, with large as well as small to medium sized companies participating," said Jim Nichols, Liquent's Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing, who launched this worldwide initiative in 2003. "We're particularly excited to see a significant increase in the numbers of Contract Research Organizations (CROs) replying to our survey, further diversifying the population sample."

Full results of the survey are available on request at the following address: http://www.liquent.com/2008survey/

For more information about Liquent regulatory information management services, please go to: http://www.thomsonreuters.com/products_services/scientific1/liquentinsight

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

Web site: http://www.thomsonreuters.com http://www.liquent.com/2008survey/ http://www.thomsonreuters.com/products_services/scientific1/liquentinsight

Eoin Bedford of Thomson Reuters, Scientific, +44-207-433-4691, eoin.bedford@thomsonreuters.com. Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080424/NYTH069LOGO, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com