New outsourcing trends take shape across the pharma industry

Outsourcing Pharma Blog

Since the 1980s, when outsourcing became integral to cost reduction for pharmaceutical companies, expertise at vendors has accelerated. Today, some outsourcers have become trusted specialists in their areas of expertise, prompting companies to turn to these organizations for their knowledge and ability to deliver new efficiencies thanks to innovative processes acquired over many years.
In recent years, several significant outsourcing trends have emerged that are starting to reshape the landscape. Five, in particular, stand out:
• The first is the role outsourcing now plays in helping companies to modernize processes and improve cross-functional collaboration. This has not been easy for companies since there are no real standards to support foundational processes, despite a push to standardize on enterprise technology platforms. Outsourcing overcomes those issues, ensuring better coordination and process optimization.
• Tapping into the specialist expertise offered by outsourcing partners is a second key trend. This gives companies access to new and emerging technologies, enables them to better manage regulatory information, be better prepared for new regulations, and be able to adapt better to new data and documentation requirements.
• A third trend is a shift to a more coordinated, multi-functional approach to portfolio maintenance through outsourcing arrangements. This helps to overcome a common challenge of having fragmented data and documentation at different locations, at different points in time
• Operational agility is key to staying ahead of the complex regulatory environment with heightened data requirements and the constant need to file variations for changes to formulations, manufacturing processes/sites or label contents. Outsourcing gives companies access to a large pool of skilled, knowledgeable resources – a fourth key trend across the industry.
• In the digital age, a fifth key trend is the ability to stay on top of the digital transformation without significant investments in infrastructure. Automation and other advanced technologies bring huge promise to the regulatory process, but they do add complexity with regards to appropriate quality management testing and validation. Working with outsourcing partners with expertise in these areas removes those administrative burdens.
There are many reasons for companies to work more closely with outsourcing partners and take advantage of key trends that have the potential to shake up the industry, streamline processes and improve regulatory compliance

Disclaimer:

This blog is intended to communicate PharmaLex’s capabilities which are backed by the author’s expertise. However, PharmaLex US Corporation and its parent, Cencora, Inc., strongly encourage readers to review the references provided with this article and all available information related to the topics mentioned herein and to rely on their own experience and expertise in making decisions related thereto as the article may contain certain marketing statements and does not constitute legal advice. 

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