MARY JO LAMBERTI*, PAULAMI NAIK, STELLA STERGIOPOULOS, JENNIFER KIM, KENNETH GETZ
*Corresponding authorTufts CSDD, Tufts University, 75 Kneeland Street, Suite 1100, Boston, MA 02111, USA

Abstract

This article examines the global contract service provider market within R&D. Published data characterizing this global market has been limited and has focused primarily on individual service areas or specific global regions. The authors have recently conducted an analysis of the U.S. market and compare and contrast global estimates with the results from the U.S. study. Our estimates suggest that the total market for global contract services is between $85 and $105 BB USD and North America has the largest share of the global market across Non-clinical, Clinical, and CMC services. CMC represents the largest share of the global market and is estimated at $30 to 33 BB USD. The limitations of the methodology are discussed as well as the need for further study to assess the overall global market size and structure.

INTRODUCTION

High sponsor demand to improve operating and infrastructure efficiency by engaging drug and device development personnel under a variable cost model has stimulated the rapid growth of global outsourcing. During the past decade, across a broad continuum of R&D functions, sponsor companies have hired contract service providers for capacity and expertise on project specific tasks. And, increasingly in late stage development, sponsors have established more strategic collaborations requiring contract research organizations to manage entire functions and programs.
Despite the dramatic increase in global outsourcing activity, until 2012, to our knowledge, little information on the overall size of the R&D services market has been published. Data characterizing the size of outsourcing markets in peer-review and trade journals has largely focused on individual service areas and countries or regions associated with each publisher’s readership or the author’s primary area of expertise. Contract lead identification and optimization services markets and practices, for example, tend to be covered in publications reaching discovery scien ...