According to Contract Pharma’s 2018 Outsourcing Survey of over 200 respondents from the pharmaceutical and contract service providers (CSP), the main reason that pharmaceutical companies outsource, as per 34% of respondents, is to be able to focus on their own company’s core competencies. Approximately 28% of respondents work for are virtual companies, which also require the need for outsourcing, and 19% pointed to outsourcing as a solution to a temporary lack of capacity at their company. Remaining respondents cited lifecycle management, reduction of company sizes and other reasons for outsourcing.

A little more than 50% of respondents see outsourcing as strategic, defined as “entire classes of functions performed out-of-house,” while 49% indicated that outsourcing is tactical for their companies, defined as “case-by-case, based on availability.” However, 75% of respondents do not view their relationships with CSPs as partnerships.

Almost half, of all respondents, or 46%, use between 1–5 preferred vendors, with 42% of respondents stating that over 50% of their company’s outstanding dollars go to these preferred vendors. Confidentiality, regulatory inspection history, timeliness, quality and costs are some of the main factors pharmaceutical companies consider when choosing a CSP. While 27% of respondents indicated that their outsourcing spending is not expected to change in the next year, 16% stated that their outsourcing spending is estimated to decrease 10%. In contrast, 22% of respondents expect their outsourcing spending to increase 10%.

Source: Contract Pharma