Despite Ramping Up In-House R&D, Eli Lilly and Pfizer Remain Committed to CROs
July 31, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CHICAGO – Despite Pfizer’s and Eli Lilly and Company’s expansion of research and development facilities, the two major pharmaceutical companies say they both plan on continuing to use contract research organizations (CRO), Outsourcing-Pharma reported this morning.
Earlier this month, Pfizer announced plans to consolidate its three Cambridge, Mass. operations in one 500,000 square-foot facility “to help accelerate discovery, incubate innovation in creative ways, and increase the pace of innovation,” the company said. Pfizer’s Cambridge research focuses on rare diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, inflammation and immunology, neuroscience and biotherapeutic technologies.
Eli Lilly announced it was expanding its research and development operations at the Lilly Biotechnology Center in San Diego, increasing its space by 140 percent and staff by 70 percent.
While the two big pharma staples expanded their R&D operations, the companies said it would not impact their current contracts with CROs, Outsourcing reported. In fact, CROs will continue to play a strong role in helping bring new drugs and therapies to market. Claran Murray, chief executive officer of Icon, told investors that the top five CROs will increase their market share by about 8 percent over the next five years. The companies that stand to gain the most by outsourcing research include Icon, Quintiles, Covance, PPD and Paraexel, he said.
This year several CROs announced some expansion. ChemPartner, a preclinical research partner for healthcare companies, announced plans for a 24,000 square foot pharmaceutical research and development facility in San Francisco. ChemPartner, which was founded in 2002, currently employs more than 2,000 scientists in three research sites in China. ChemPartner selected San Francisco as the site of its new research hub due to the high concentration of other life science companies, company officials said.
In January, Icon Plc., a provider of outsourced clinical trial services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, announced plans to build a new global innovation hub in Ireland. The new hub will drive development of new technologies and clinical trial processes that “will enable faster access to large volumes of clinical data and will enable clinical trial personnel to derive better insights from the data,” the company said.
In March, Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc., a contract research company, and Quest Diagnostics, a medical test maker, announced the two companies will combine to form the world’s second-largest global clinical trials laboratory services business. The companies will combine clinical trials laboratory operations in an effort to “succeed in the increasingly complex biopharmaceutical industry,” the companies said in a joint press release. The companies said customers will benefit from a business model that is “singularly focused on delivering top-quality laboratory services informed by deep medical and clinical knowledge.”