...throughout the product pipeline, and the increased use contract manufacturers by the pharmacuetical and biotechnology companies. As these pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies pursue their outsourcing strategies, the choice of a contractor becomes a critical and strategic decision.

In the latest report by High-Tech Business Decisions, Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing: Quality, Capacities and Emerging Technologies, 41 biomanufacturing directors at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide were surveyed regarding contractor selection. All respondents in the study said outsourcing is part of their production strategy. The directors discussed their criteria and the essential characteristics they look for when choosing a contractor.

Contractor Selection Criteria

In the study, the directors ranked the four most important characteristics that they seek in a contractor. Overall, the key criteria used to choose a contractor are a) the contract manufacturer's experience and reputation, b) price, c) customer service, and d) quality. These characteristics are a composite of all criteria mentioned, weighted by the directors' ranking of each criterion. While the macro view of the criteria for choosing a contractor provides a good overall view of the requirements needed by a contactor to win business, a deeper understanding of the specific needs of the market can be gained when the criteria are segmented by organization size. Therefore, for this analysis, the criteria for choosing a contractor are grouped by the size of the firm. We define a small firm as a biotechnology company with no manufacturing sites and a large firm as a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company with multiple manufacturing sites, that usually operates multiple international sites.

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Experience

For smaller firms, the...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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