The pharmaceutical industry has changed dramatically in the past couple of decades. Drug targets have become more challenging; regulators are demanding longer and more expensive clinical trials to prove safety; and healthcare systems and insurance companies are actively trying to drive down cost. Add in the rise of generic medicines – and the range of therapeutic areas now well served by these generics – and the financial pressures facing big pharma companies become clear.
Outsourcing has become a key component in pharmaceutical companies’ cost-saving strategies. There is a much greater reliance on in-licensing of targets and drug leads, allowing pharmaceutical companies to focus more on those expensive clinical trials that the biotechs and academics cannot afford to run themselves. Production has been dramatically downsized and outsourced too, with far more manufacturing now carried out by third parties that have flexible capacity and capabilities.
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