Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market

In the present scenario, the manufacturing of pharmaceutical drugs and products is becoming complex which requires advanced equipment, specialized production facilities and high operational expertise. Small molecule drugs account for nearly 90% of the therapeutics in the pharmaceutical market. In 2017, FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research approved 34 small molecule drugs. This represents an annual growth of nearly 56%, signifying the growing importance of contract manufacturing in the overall pharmaceutical industry. In comparison to previous years, leading pharmaceutical companies have become much more dependent on contract manufacturing and packaging services in order to meet their fundamental needs and specified competencies, while fulfilling stringent regulations. As per the report published by Fior Market Research, the global pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market was valued at USD 96.73 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 143.02 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.01% over the forecast period from 2019 to 2026.

The global pharmaceutical contract manufacturing is segmented on the basis of product type, application and end user. The product type segment is categorized into active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), finished dosage formulations (FDF), Advanced Drug Delivery Products, OTC medicines, nutritional products and others. The application segment is segmented into pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical. The end user segment is bifurcated into sterile and non-sterile. The market is analysed on the basis of five regions namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East and Africa.

Over the past few decades, the dependence on pharmaceutical drugs and medicines for well-being have augmented drastically. This is mainly due to the rising health consciousness amongst the population. With a limited number of blockbuster drugs coupled with rising demand for innovative drugs, major pharmaceutical organizations are trying to maintain their competitiveness by manufacturing drugs with corresponding cost effectiveness. Moreover, after the regulatory approval of the drug, these companies are left with relatively less time to deliver the drug in the market in a substantial quantity. Basically, the leading companies are shifting focus from manufacturing the formulated drugs towards research and development of unique drugs to maintain their position. This is turn, resulted in greater outsourcing of manufacturing facilities to pharmaceutical contract manufacturers.

For 140 years, Eli Lilly has been a leading manufacturer of insulin pens. The organization works with a network of contract manufacturers to produce the pens. When the demand of the insulin pen rose, the company started to face problems regarding operational inefficiency. Then with the help of cloud and real-time sensor data, the company was able to stream real-time data from its contract manufacturing sites through cloud to ensure that the equipment is running by specification and identify any sort of production issues. Not only it aided in reducing the production lead time, but the real time data also allowed the contract manufacturers to demonstrate accountability for quality and compliance as per regulatory standards.

Currently, pharmaceutical drug manufacturers are at a critical stage. The demand for innovative health care solutions are escalating, but so do calls for new regulations and lower prices. The tautness between investors, manufacturers, the public and the laws of chemistry cannot continue on its current trajectory. Thus, the innovations in drug manufacturing hold the potential to minimize some of the pressure by streamlining processes with cost effectiveness. Contract manufacturing holds great prospective for the big pharmaceutical companies in future.