Pharma Firms to Expand Outsourcing Scope : EquaTerra

According to a report, ‘Outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical industry’ by EquaTerra, about 44 percent of the pharmaceutical companies that have already outsourced one or more IT or BPO services are likely to outsource a few more functions, including HR and finance, during 2007. While the primary reason for IT outsourcing is cost reduction, BPO services also help to improve costs as well as processes.

Among the key findings, while about 39 percent of the pharmaceutical companies are planning to outsource their activities to new geographies or business units and about 22 percent are likely to expand their existing outsourcing activities. The firm also reported that none of the companies are planning to reduce their outsourcing activities.

The organization also confirmed that IT is the most common process that is being outsourced by pharma companies. About 72 percent of the pharmaceutical firms are already outsourcing their IT services, while the others are either planning to or have no intention to outsource. In addition, the survey claimed that business process functions, such as call centers, finance, and human resources in the pharma industry are still in the nascent stage and are expected to mature gradually.

In the BPO domain, the most common processes which are outsourced in the pharma domain include call center or CRM services. The report also highlighted the increase in outsourcing activities in clinical trials, R&D of new drug, and developing drugs in the future.