CROs & CMOs: Focusing On Innovation

By Kate Hammeke, research manager, Nice Insight

In 2011, innovation was a major topic among the various players in the drug development industry. Feedback from clients and sponsor-side industry personnel prompted a change in the outsourcing drivers included in the Nice Insight Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Outsourcing survey, such that innovation — or the ability to improve in-house capabilities with customized solutions — replaced accessibility for the 2012 research cycle. The results from the Q1, 2012 survey indicated that while important, innovation ranked sixth after quality, reliability, productivity, regulatory track record, and affordability with respect to partner selection.

Five of the CMOs in Nice Insight’s study received “excellent” scores — 80% and above — in the innovation category. The top-scoring businesses included Cangene bioPharma, Legacy Pharmaceuticals, Norwich Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz, and UPM Pharmaceuticals. Interestingly, each of these companies received a score of 81% in innovation, and their results averaged eight percentage points higher than the industry mean of 73%.

Quality and productivity tend to link closely to innovation. These outsourcing drivers are indicative of enabling the sponsor organization to focus on core competencies while trusting that its project is receiving the necessary attention to be successful. Nice Insight compared how the top-scoring companies for innovation fared on these two measures. Among innovation leaders, the average productivity score was three percentage points higher than the CMO benchmark (77% vs. 74%). This difference was present but less pronounced (at one percentage point) when comparing the quality score of innovation leaders to the CMO benchmark for quality.