Company Type

• Top 20 Pharma: 23.9%
• Small/Mid-Tier Pharma: 20.1%
• Emerging Biopharma: 11.0%
• Virtual Pharma: 9.6%
• Generic Pharma: 7.7%
• Top 10 Biopharma: 6.7%
• Consumer/OTC Healthcare: 5.3%
• Specialty Pharma: 2.9%
• Other: 12.9%

Job Function

• R&D: 20.6%
• Corporate Management: 14.4%
• Project Manager: 10.5%
• Purchasing/Sourcing: 10.0%
• Business Development: 7.2%
• Production/Manufacturing/Packaging: 6.7%
• QA/QC/Validation: 6.2%
• Contract Manager: 5.7%
• Marketing/Sales: 4.8%
• Clinical Research: 4.8%
• Supply Chain Manager: 4.3%
• Regulatory Affairs: 1.9%
• Other: 2.9%

Plateau?

Last year, 45% of respondents believed that they will spend the same or less on outsourcing spending in the coming year; this year, that rose to 48%. Meanwhile, 49% told us that they spent the same or less on outsourcing in the previous year, down from 51% in our 2011 survey. One-quarter of respondents said that 2011 saw no change in outsourcing spending from 2010.

23% of respondents tell us they had cancelled outsourcing projects in the previous year due to the economy; down from 25% in our 2011 survey. Top 20 Pharma respondents had the highest “cancellation rate” of any company type, at 29%.

Maybe it’s a change in respondents, or maybe it’s an industry trend at last, but 55% of Top 20 Pharma respondents said they use 1-5 preferred vendors, up from 32% in last year’s survey. Top 20 Pharma is still the second lowest group to focus on that number of preferred providers; Generic Pharma was at 54%.