Applications to run clinical trials in Europe fell 25% between 2007 and 2011. Costs, speed of approvals and shortcomings of European Clinical Trial Directive are commonly invoked to explain this unsatisfactory performance. However, no hard evidence is available on the actual weight of these factors or has it been previously investigated whether other criteria may also impact clinical trial site selection. This study concludes that investigator-dependent factors and ease of approval dominate trial site selection, while costs appear less important. In this context Switzerland scores below UK, Germany and NL on trial site selection.
