U.S. Contract Manufacturers Adapt To Increasing Global Competition

Large pharmaceutical companies increasingly turn to contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) solely to achieve efficiencies in cost, capacity, and time-to-market, or to obtain a specific expertise not available in-house. Today, these factors still play a role, but now the most dynamic driver behind the use of CMOs in the pharmaceutical industry rapidly is becoming the unique, innovative, and state-of-the-art process and production technology they offer. More and more pharma companies are leaning towards outsourcing to concentrate on marketing their products, without spending time in drug discovery and process of manufacturing.

John Clifton, Group Publisher of Pharmaceutical Online, recently had the opportunity to discuss this topic with Terry Novak, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at DSM Pharmaceuticals and DSM Biologics, and David Heyens, Vice President and General Manager Pharmaceutical Technologies and Services at Cardinal Health. Novak and Heyens weighed in on several issues regarding contract manufacturing, including how the increase in global competition has affected U.S.-based pharmaceutical contract manufacturers and the steps that DSM Pharmaceuticals and Cardinal Health have taken to adapt to this increase.