A study of business model of contract research organizations in Taiwan: case study on drug development

生物醫藥產業對人類健康福祉影響甚鉅，同時也屬於技術、資本密集、開發期長、風險偏高的產業，在新藥開發的歷程中，臨床試驗是開發中藥品自「試驗階段」邁向「市場階段」的絕對關鍵過程，其重要性不言而喻。對藥廠而言，臨床試驗若能有效率地被執行，一方面可縮短試驗時間減少花費；另一方面則是搶得先機佔據市場，及早實現獲利。因應臨床試驗重要且繁複需求的臨床試驗服務公司（Contract Research Organization, CRO）便應蘊而生。 CRO產業在美國的發展已逾40年，在奠基於過去的競爭基礎之外，其CRO產業已朝向「便利性」與「客製化」等利基市場佈局，以滿足新的顧客價值主張，並創新商業模式，追求新的成長機會。本研究在介紹美國CRO之產業市場營運模式之外，也以個案分析方式，自國內CRO公司與藥廠/生技公司的互動、合作，探討CRO的營運模式是否符合客戶需求，並嘗試以書中四個核心市場要素：顧客價值主張、利潤公式、關鍵流程與關鍵資源，思索CRO公司應如何經營市場白地。希望借鏡國外CRO公司的演進，反饋予國內CRO產業的未來發展及策略調整參考。Bio-pharmaceutical industry on human health well-being highly influential, but also a industry of technical, capital intensive, long development periods, and high risk. Among the course of drug development, clinical trials are absolute the key to the process, and advance the development process from the pilot phase to the market phase. For pharmaceutical companies, if the clinical trial can be executed efficiently, they can shorten the test time and spending; seize the market in advance, and reap profits as soon as possible. In response to the important and complex clinical trial requirements, the Contract Research Organization (CRO) prospers and takes advantage of a favorable situation. The evolvement of the CRO industry in US is more than 40 years. In the foundation base in the past, the CRO industry has been towards convenience and customization and other niche market distribution, to meet new customer value propositions, innovative business models and pursue new growth opportunities. In this thesis, the author not only introduces the CRO’s business models in US, but also explores the CRO’s business models in Taiwan by way of case studies. Through the interaction and cooperation between domestic pharmaceutical companies and CROs, the author wants to find out if the business models of CROs are in line with customer needs. The author also wants to quest if the CROs can learn how to manage and operate a white space which the CROs hope to seize by way of the book Seizing the White Space lists four fundamental building blocks including customer value proposition, profit formula, key resources, and key processes that make a company business model works. The domestic CROs can adjust their strategy and business model for fitting customer’s value proposition