COVID-19's Impact On Outsourced Manufacturing

By Kate Hammeke, VP of Market Research, Industry Standard Research (ISR) @ISRreports

Over the past year, COVID-19 has impacted just about every aspect of our personal and professional lives. The pharmaceutical industry rose to myriad challenges brought on by the global pandemic. One of the high points has been the development, testing, and approval of multiple coronavirus vaccines in record time. The immediate and unpredicted need for billions of doses of a vaccine sent tidal waves through the biopharma industry, derailed strategic plans set in place years ago, and forced pharmaceutical companies to shift resources.

To understand how COVID-19 impacted the outsourced manufacturing sector, ISR included a few questions on the topic in our annual contract development and manufacturing benchmarking studies. According to 438 participants across the four surveys, 45% experienced outsourced manufacturing complications because of the pandemic. Biologic drug product outsourcers confirmed complications at the highest rate (51%), while small molecule drug product outsourcers reported complications at the lowest rate (40%). Drug substance outsourcers were similarly likely to be impacted, whether manufacturing biologic (44%) or small molecule (45%) active ingredients.