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Outsourcing tsourcing?
Outsourcing is now a global business, but how is it changing? asks Neil Eisberg
T
he relationship between Big Pharma and contract research organisations (CROs) is undergoing a major
change, according to speakers at ChemOutsourcing in New Jersey, US. It evolving from a purely transactional relationship, based on fee-for-service, to a risk sharing approach, according to Ian Cottrell, director, discovery and preclinical science, at Merck & Co, who notes that the question that this poses, however, is: can this new approach ‘ignite the drug discovery process’, which has undergone a stagnation in recent years, enabling both parties to benefit from what Cottrell described as the ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’, the profits that result from a successful drug commercialisation? As Paul Clewlow, senior vp, business development, at UK-based Sygnature Discovery, noted, Big Pharma has changed in many ways, particularly in terms of downsizing, particularly as regards its internal research. Like many other small companies, Sygnature has ‘picked up many experts from Big Pharma and can use their expertise to accelerate drug discovery, whether on a fee-for-
service or risk-sharing basis’ he added. ‘We may have people who are more expert than our clients, who could be a large pharma company or another CRO. Although small, this makes us a strong partner.’ This was echoed by Robert Foglesong,
director of chemistry and business development at Scynexis, who said: ‘Downsizing has done a lot in making expertise available to CROs, as more difficult chemistry problems are being outsourced.’ There is the added benefit, as Irini Zanze, associate research fellow at AbbVie, pointed out: ‘Risk-sharing offers a lot of opportunities for big companies to go into areas that they have been unable to go into due to budget and other constraints. It also allows for faster collaboration as the CRO has a lot at stake.’ As Cottrell pointed out, Big Pharma
benefits from the access to external expertise, and, as well as being able to execute projects faster, companies can adopt a broader stance. When looking at outsourcing with a CRO, Clewlow believes that if the deal is appropriate for both partners then it
Chemistry&Industry • November 2013 43
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