by Roger Lias, PhD
Volume 2, Issue 3 (May/June 2003)
Contract manufacturing of recombinant protein drugs and vaccines, as well as other biopharmaceuticals, has been the focus of considerable interest during the past decade. Fueled by a strong clinical development pipeline, primary manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals on a contract basis has attracted multinational industrial concerns willing to invest on the promise of potentially higher returns than are experienced in the production of traditional small molecule drugs. Biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers have made significant contributions to the development and subsequent commercialization of a few highly successful products. However, despite strong growth, consistent profitability has been elusive. The market has changed over the past decade as customer projects progressed from process development through market launch. Now that several preeminent market players have successfully made the difficult transition from clinical to commercial supplier, what has been learned and how is the market expected to evolve over the next five years?…
Citation:
Lias R. Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing at the Crossroads. BioProcess J, 2003; 2(3): 19-23.