The topic of contract research and drug development is among the hottest topics in the biotech and pharmaceutical businesses right now.

Traditionally companies in both of these sectors have managed all the research and development in house, from developing the medication to manufacturing and carrying out each the clinical research that’s required before a drug can be found to the market.

Researcher working with chemicals

During the past decade however, companies in both of these sectors have turned to outsourcing a few of the procedures involved in drug manufacture and development in an attempt to cut costs.

CRO’s (Contract Research Organisations) provide outsourced services to the pharmaceutical and biotech businesses in the kind of drug development, marketing, clinical trials and several other facets of in the procedure of obtaining a new drug prepared for market.

The advantage of these businesses is that they operate on a contract basis, meaning that when a job is completed, the pharmaceutical company doesn’t have to continue paying staff which were involved in the procedure of obtaining a drug prepared for market.

Cost cutting is one of the principal drivers for outsource R&D from the industry. With the financial crisis of 2008/09, many companies looked at cost cutting measures and having the ability to outsource certain elements of this process provided a means of doing this.

The procedure also has other advantages too, for example working with a contract organisation can occasionally lead to faster results since the CRO has particular expertise that the key drug manufacturer is lacking . Businesses often start out by outsourcing a portion of their process and then once they’ve understood how to get it done fast, they will often bring back in-house as they’ve learned the necessary skills so as to carry out the practice.

There are a number of pros and cons to outsourcing drug development and research and employers need think carefully about the entire process and choose the ideal partner to outsource to so as to get the perfect results. Companies will need to monitor and keep track of the CRO they’re working with to make sure that the work is of a high quality and adhering to the deadline that was set out in the start of the project, which can occupy plenty of time and energy.

In some instances, smaller firms are better equipped learning the procedure they are trying to outsource and deliver it back in-house after a project was completed. This would make certain they have complete control of this process and keep the abilities in-house for future endeavors.

The CRO market will keep growing during the next decade as companies look to cut costs and outsource phases of the development they don’t have expertise in. But, biotech and pharma companies will need to be careful before they seem to outsourcing every element of a project, especially if there’s only a brief timeline available.