What a Delay Actually Costs

Part of Clinical Project Management (PM) Training: Budget, Resourcing and the Cost of Delay.

About 1 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

The visible cost is the smallest part

A six-month delay costs six months of time-driven spend. That number is easy to calculate and it is the one people quote.

The costs that are larger and less visible

Site attrition. Staff move on, the PI's interest shifts, the trial stops being a priority. Re-engaging a site costs real effort and sometimes fails.

Drug expiry. Product manufactured for the original timeline expires. Re-testing, extension or remanufacture each cost months as well as money.

Competing trials. Sites take other studies. The population you were relying on is being enrolled by someone else.

Data that ages. Standard of care moves. A comparator arm designed four years ago may no longer represent current practice, which is a scientific problem, not only a logistical one.

Delay compounds

Each of those effects makes recruitment slower, which extends the delay, which worsens each effect. A trial that slips is more likely to slip again, which is why early slippage deserves a stronger response than its size suggests.

Present it as a decision

When a delay is unavoidable, the sponsor needs the full cost, not the monthly burn. Options with costs attached — add sites, widen eligibility by amendment, extend, or stop — allow a real decision.

A delay presented as a status update invites acceptance. A delay presented with costed options invites a choice, and the choice is usually better than drift.