Contract Pharma’s annual outsourcing survey is one of our most anticipated editorial features of the year, where we benchmark the state of pharmaceutical industry with the help of you, our readers. The results are in for this year’s 13th edition, for which we had nearly 400 industry professionals participate.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents were from pharmaceutical sponsor companies, and the remaining 61% represented contract service providers. When asked if there is an increasing demand for outsourcing this year, 65% of respondents from both the sponsor and service provider side answered yes.

When asked why they are outsourcing, the majority of sponsors (33%) said it is to focus on core competencies, while 26% outsource because they are virtual. Sixteen percent of sponsors lacked the capacity and capabilities to handle the work in-house. The top focus areas for sponsor companies’ outsourcing efforts are:

1. Clinical trials, Phases I-IV (39%)
2. Analytical and testing services (31%) 
3. API manufacturing (27%)
4. Formulation development (25%)
5. Solid dosage manufacturing (20%)
6. Fill/finish manufacturing (19%)

The demand for outsourcing is coming mostly from mid-sized diversified pharma companies (50%), according to the contract service providers polled. The next largest demand is coming from small pharma companies (39%) followed by Big Pharma (29%), small biopharma (26%), and lastly, Big Biopharma (17%).

The biggest challenges faced when working with sponsor companies, most service providers (65%) agreed, is insufficient information getting in the way of project success. Unrealistic deadlines (62%) are also hampering a majority of project partnerships, according to the service providers. Infrequent communication (42%), inadequate tech support (32%), and incompatible technology platforms (25%) were also issues cited.

From the sponsor side, 51% of respondents this year said communication and cultural issues pose the greatest challenge to the sponsor-contract services relationship. Documentation and analytical method development were tied for the next top challenge cited (39%) followed by quality assurance issues (37%).

This is just a snapshot of some of the results. Please turn to page 38 for the full report and be sure to check out the online version, which will be supplemented with some additional information and charts. Also, if you feel there are some questions that need to be asked but aren’t, drop me a line and we’ll consider including in next year’s survey. Thanks as always.

Tim Wright, Editor
twright@rodmanmedia.com