Outsourcing Solid Dose Manufacturing Trends In 2014

By Kate Hammeke, Director of Marketing Intelligence, Nice Insight

Of the 25 percent of respondents who will engage a CMO for commercial scale manufacturing projects this year, more than half of them will outsource solid dosage form manufacturing, showing a 4 percentage point increase over last year (51 percent in 2013 up to 55 percent in 2014). Nice Insight’s annual survey results indicated that solid dose manufacturing will be outsourced with the greatest frequency, followed by injectables (50 percent), semi-solids (44 percent), then specialty dosage forms (42 percent). In general, respondents reported they would outsource finished dosage forms with a greater frequency than API manufacturing (for both large and small molecule APIs).

When it comes to outsourcing behaviors, respondents who will contract solid dose manufacturing in 2014 showed a greater likelihood for considering emerging market providers than the general population, with nearly 9 out of 10 stating they include CMOs in emerging markets on their short lists (87 percent vs. 70 percent). Among those who consider emerging markets, 63 percent are already working with a manufacturer in an emerging market, and 25 percent are aware of reliable CMOs but haven’t offshored yet. With that said, CMOs in the U.S. and Canada still receive 23 percent of outsourced solid dose projects. China and Western Europe follow, securing 15 percent of outsourced projects, and India is a close contender with 13 percent of the work.