For contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) dealing in oral dosage drugs, the next five years is likely to be steady, according to a report entitled ‘Oral Dosage Forms Market Trends and Outsourcing Dynamics,’ published by ISR.
The report is based on the responses of 105 pharma and biotech executives and, according to ISR Market Research Director Kate Hammeke, the survey found the outsourcing penetration of oral dosage forms is “anticipated to remain fairly steady over the next five years, with an upward shift of four percentage points.”
Furthermore, she told Outsourcing-Pharma.com, the same is true for clinical trial manufacturing and outsourced dosage form development which will remain stable, growing at 1% and 2% respectively.
In such an environment, “CMOs will be able to gain an advantage over competitors through their technical capabilities and through the oral dosage forms offered by the CMO,” she added.
This corresponds with recent investments from a number of players looking to distinguish themselves through niche technology offerings.
Fareva, for example, recently followed moves by Catalent into micronisation services. Patheon and AMRI, meanwhile, have been focusing their M&A efforts on hard-to-make and controlled APIs. And firms including Pharmatek and Capsugel have invested in spray-dried dispersion technologies.
And regionally speaking, while India and China have been areas of growth for CMOs looking to take advantage of drugmakers offshoring oral dosage form manufacturing, Hammeke told us Eastern Europe is set to grow.
“Among respondents who offshore oral dosage manufacturing, Eastern Europe was identified as the region with the largest percentage of people who had not previously outsourced manufacturing to the region but plan to,” she said.