A world of outsourcing awaits - part III drug manufacturing
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Although manufacturing is the most established of the pharma outsourcing segments, many service areas are still rapidly evolving. OutsourcingPharma.com gives a brief run down of the current state of play. Pharma companies now outsource a wide-range of manufacturing-related activities, including the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and chemical intermediaries, formulation, stability testing, packaging and labelling as well as whole drug products and drug delivery systems and more recently, biomanufacturing. An API is the substance in a drug that that causes the pharmacological activity of the drug. An intermediate is a substance that is used as part of the manufacturing process in chemical reactions to create the drug. In the API and intermediates market, pharma companies are spoilt for choice with an overcapacity of contract suppliers, mainly due to increasing competition from manufacturers in Asia, particularly India and China, and underperforming drug pipelines. More : in-pharmatechnologist.com |