Life Sciences companies will often contract with physician practices, outpatient clinics and medical centers to help carry out the protocols of their clinical trials.  In many cases, an FMV assessment is highly recommended especially if the providers refer the products of the company.  The most common way to estimate the FMV of the services that clinics and providers furnish in the execution of clinical trials is by estimating the FMV hourly rate of the personnel involved along with an appropriate factor for overhead and supplies. 

This is not the difficult part.  Estimating the necessary amount of time needed to fully execute the protocols of the clinical trials is where the risk lies.  The actual time involved in carrying out the protocols times the FMV hourly rate is basically how you commute the FMV of the entire process.  Financial appraisers are not qualified to give opinions on the reasonable and customary amount of time needed to conduct clinical tasks.  Estimating the time needed to execute administrative and clerical tasks is an element that an appraiser can estimate with relatively low risk.  The site sponsor and the life science company will need to weigh in on this factor and come up with some reasonable and supportable time estimates for each task.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!