Opportunities in Biopharmaceutical Outsourcing to China

S piraling costs of biopharmaceutical research and development (R&D) and manufacturing have driven an increasing number of multinational biopharmaceutical companies to consider outsourcing their activities. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency and productivity are vital to maintaining competitiveness. It takes 10–15 years to bring a new medication to market, and it can cost more than US$800 million in the West. By comparison, the cost of developing a new drug in China may be 20 % of that amount and often with shorter development time (1). According to a newly released study on the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry by BioPlan Associates, Inc. (BioPlan) and the Society fo