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Value to the Fore

Trends indicate a return to value, as Contract Research Organizations (CROs) continue to grow their skill sets and ally with the global R&D industry to tap flexible solutions aimed at improving pipeline success. Bruce Molino, Ph.D., Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry, and Christopher Conway, Senior Director of Business Development, AMRI, analyze the increasing demand for R&D outsourcing and examine how CROs are evolving to better meet industry needs.  

R&D outsourcing is widely used by pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural and related industries to augment research and development and achieve objectives in a more cost effective manner. The pharmaceutical industry spends far more money on R&D outsourcing than other industries, and as a result pharmaceutical R&D budgets are an important barometer for R&D outsourcing for the broader industry looking forward. The forecast for pharmaceutical R&D spending through 2016 is estimated at about 2.5% increase per annum with a total spend in 2011 estimated around $133 billion. Prior to 2008, pharmaceutical R&D budgets increased slightly more than 10% per annum. A key reason for the slower growth forecast in R&D spending is attributed to the loss of revenue from blockbuster drugs that are losing patent protection.