Post-Pandemic Era Drives Outsourcing Demand: How Are CDMOs Responding?

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current geopolitical environment on the biopharmaceutical industry — including supply chain, resource management, hiring/training, and capacity constraints — cannot be overstated. While best practices have emerged to address such issues, it can be helpful to evaluate and understand how other pharmaceutical companies and biopharmas are overcoming challenges, as well as how CDMOs are evolving to satisfy growing demand for outsourcing support.

Cambrex hosted a roundtable forum, assembling experts from across the industry to discuss topics such as early development outsourcing strategy, supply chain security, and how to foster mutually beneficial relationships between sponsors and vendors. While the industry is yet to settle into a “new normal,” this conversation shed light on risk mitigation and time-saving approaches that have shown efficacy in terms of building and managing outsourced drug development in the post-pandemic era.

The industry's response to the pandemic proved it is possible to take a drug candidate through clinical trials at a much faster pace than eight to 10 years. Living up to that promise of speed is now the expectation for CDMOs. Ultimately, to survive in the highly competitive biopharma and pharmaceutical markets, CDMOs must be adaptable to the culture of the company for whom they are working.