Outsourcing drug discovery

Agres, T. 2005. Outsourcing Spikes Competition. Drug Discovery and Development. Available at http //www.dddmag.com [Accessed May 10, 2005]. 

All successful pharmaceutical firms understand this problem and are constantly searching for novel approaches to expedite the process and to reduce the cost. One approach used more and more is to outsource some or all of the drug discovery and pharmacology aspects to CSOs that have particular expertise that are not available in a pharmaceutical company and that would be costly in time and resources to establish. This section summarizes the present scientific... 

Waring, J. Strategic outsourcing fuels research growth. Drug Discovery Development Jan/Feb 2000, 40. 

Pharmaceutical companies need not be self-sufficient in aU their operations all the time, so they obtain certain goods and services from external suppliers, in a practice known as outsourcing. These goods and services do not merely represent, say, office supplies and corporate advertising remarkably, they also include scientific research. External suppliers furnish to some fipcos the results of chemical and biological drug discovery efforts as well as... 

T. G. Klopack, Strategic outsourcing balancing the risks and the benefits. Drug Discovery Today, 5 (2000), 157-160. 

It should come as no surprise that in recent years biotech and pharma have been quick to embrace global outsourcing. Eor example, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) says it now outsources about 90% of its chemical scaffold synthesis. Right now this is an extreme example other companies and other areas of drug discovery have been affected to less of an extent. But that extent keeps increasing. 

Factors impossible to predict will affect future outsource utilization. For example, should a sustained drop in biotech and pharma profitability occur, the pressure to put this particular shoe on whether it fits or not will increase. The situation will obviously vary from company to company and project to project as well. Although the extent to which it s used may vary, global outsourcing will be a fact of life in drug discovery for the foreseeable future. 

Outsourcing in Drug Discovery, 2nd Edition , Kalorama Information. Available at http //www.kaloramain-formation.com/pub/1099949.html. 

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