Andreas Beust on how a small CRO covers the globe without growing | Pharma Prescribed

Andreas Beust is CEO and Managing Director of GCP Service International, a Bremen-based CRO working across medicinal products, medical devices and in vitro diagnostics. He's also President of ACROS — the Association of International CROs — and a guest lecturer at the University of Bremen. He started on the biostatistics desk. He's now running the company, elected by a leader who — not yet 50 — went looking for a successor because clinical research moves too fast to leave succession to chance. In this episode Andreas makes complex things accessible, which is his stated mission. He explains the ACROS model: ten similarly-sized, like-minded CROs from the US to Europe, the Middle East, India, China and Australia, who agree that once a partner joins, their country is off-limits to the others. It lets a small CRO run trials globally — 20 concurrent studies across Spain, Italy and Portugal through one trusted partner — without ballooning into the kind of large, rigid, expensive organisation that can't serve smaller sponsors. Grow together, not bigger. He's refreshingly frank on AI: a lot of overpromise and underdeliver, quarter-of-a-million-per-seat licence fees that no small or mid-size company can pay, and real but modest gains in medical writing, programming and knowledge capture — always human in the loop. And he's honest about the thing that actually drives growth: discomfort. Curiosity, listening first, and putting yourself in the shop window of the unknown. An optimistic, grounded conversation about how the human end of this industry actually works — and how to break into it. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Andreas Beust 3:00 From the biostats desk to CEO 7:00 Podcasting, curiosity and listening first 11:00 Breaking into clinical research 16:00 Advice for young talent 21:00 Hiring for attitude 23:00 Leading without ego 26:00 A flexibility mindset 27:00 Building the ACROS alliance 30:00 The presidency and the mission 35:00 A communal growth model 37:00 AI in clinical trials — a reality check 42:00 Compliance, costs and human in the loop 44:00 Hope amid uncertainty 46:00 Quickfire round 50:00 Final takeaways 👤 ABOUT ANDREAS BEUST CEO and Managing Director of GCP Service International (Bremen). President of ACROS, the Association of International CROs. Guest lecturer at the University of Bremen. Biologist by training who joined GCP Service in the biostatistics department and rose to lead the company through its international expansion. Advocate for accessible clinical research and for training new talent from the ground up. 💼 Search "Andreas Beust" on LinkedIn 🌐 https://www.gcp-service.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://youtu.be/GxVq88C6ChA 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast #AndreasBeust #GCPService #ACROS #CRO #ClinicalResearch #ClinicalTrials #PharmaPrescribed #AIinPharma #ClinicalTrialCareers #GCP #ContractResearch