Pharmaceutical Outsourcing: A Glimpse Into the Future

Scientist’s Kevin Lustig and Chris Petersen were recently asked to co-author a book chapter on the future of Pharmaceutical Outsourcing.

It is gratifying to see that once again Scientist is being recognized as a thought leader and game changer in the field of drug development. If you have been following our blog you will know that Kevin was recognized as one of the 100 most inspiring people in drug development by PharmaVoice, and that Scientist was selected as one of the 2012 finalists in the Red Herring Top 100, recognizing the most innovative global companies.

The book chapter discusses the future of outsourcing within the pharmaceutical industry. How Scientist’s Research Exchange is transforming the landscape as a new, potentially transformative platform that enables a pharmaceutical company to manage a large set of internal and external service providers through a single user-friendly portal. Putting their research scientists in direct control of the outsourced experimental work and enabling a lean, flexible drug development model highly suited to the current and future needs of the Pharmaceutical industry.

There are four primary benefits to Scientist’s Research Exchange:

• Higher Quality Services: Researchers gain easy access to peer-reviewed services and preferred vendors with a track record of delivering high quality services on time.
• Direct Cost Savings: Head-to-head competition between vendors exerts downward pressure on service prices. Capturing outsourcing metrics enables new cost reduction strategies.
• Reduced Time to Clinic: An efficient outsourcing workflow with rapid sample-to-data turnaround time shaves months off the average time to IND filing.
• Enhanced Innovation: Broad access to services removes the pain of routine research and enables scientists to focus on high risk, high reward opportunities.

Each benefit is compelling on its own. When considered together, they strongly support the notion that functional outsourcing addresses some of the fundamental causes of research inefficiency and that its use could go a long way toward solving the pharmaceutical industry’s cost and productivity problems