According to Arun Jethmalani, CEO, “Establishing preferred vendor status is one of the critical success factors for Indian firms and would be imperative for long-term repeat business. There is an increasing trend amongst the Indian contract research organizations to move up the value chain by becoming preferred vendors of a few global outsourcers than serving as jack-of-all trades. Preferred vendors often land up with high margin contracts such as researching and/or developing proprietary technologies for the client.”
Going forward, the authors expect to see Indian vendors expanding their geographical presence and service-offering portfolio through acquisitions. Partnering strategies like licensing arrangements, collaborative research will be increasingly undertaken. According to Suchita Chaudhari, Senior Analyst, “Increased involvement of the outsourcing partner is imperative for success in the drug discovery, development and commercialization. This requires new thinking and new processes with an innovative partner.”
Also, companies are moving up the pharmaceutical value chain and developing capabilities in biologics to complement existing chemistry strengths. “Biodrugs are safer and more target specific than conventional drugs. Innovator companies suffering from low R&D productivity are increasingly looking at biopharma to generate leads for NCE research. Hence, we believe that Indian vendors with strengths in biopharma will see success,” says Poonam Bhana, Analyst.
