Significant changes have taken place with the SMO industry in Japan over the past couple of years, although the first few years saw a rapidly increasing number of SMOs cropping up like mushrooms after a rain since their birth seven years ago. These changes include mergers, change in capital structure, transfer of headquarters, replacement of representative, and so forth. '2007, A Handbook of Contracted Research Organizations, VOL 4' published by Seed Planning, Inc. provides an analysis of SMO’s activities for survival. In-depth analysis is given for the contract research activities, geographical coverage, achievements, and M&A activities of 52 selected laboratories, with specific achievement data including the numbers of hospitals / clinics, protocols, and cases, all of which are segmented by prefecture, indication, and clinical phase.