Assessing End-To-End Drug Development Partnerships

As drug development becomes increasingly expensive and complex, pharma companies are relying on the services of contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) to aid them in the creation and commercialization of their products. Exemplifying this, 80% of manufacturing by small biotech and pharma companies was outsourced in 2017.¹ This practice allows firms to reserve precious resource for business growth activities, while CDMO partners with extensive experience and expertise can focus on the development and production of their pipelines. Additionally, the emergence of the virtual business model has brought with it the need to form extensive partnerships with CDMOs, covering end-to-end drug development. These pharma businesses need to make their investments into partnerships count, so it is critical to maximize efficiencies.

To cater to this demand, the contract development and manufacturing market is estimated to grow to $117.3bn in 2023 at a CAGR of 6.8%.² Accomplished CDMOs are growing their breadth of services, offering pharma companies the potential for a single partnership that spans the whole drug development process. This deviates from the traditional approach of choosing different partners depending on their suitability for each step. With varied strategies for pharma companies to assess, a survey was conducted in partnership with Cambrex considering the opportunities and challenges of end-to-end arrangements.