A newly released modeling study conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) finds that sponsors who employ single-source outsourcing partners, versus a multivendor development and manufacturing model, experience significant financial benefits.

The CSDD study, which compares the financial impacts of varying contract manufacturing approaches, finds that a single-source outsourcing model shortens the drug development cycle, providing sponsors with substantial financial gains from having their products reach the market sooner. Data show that faster pre-approval development times reduced cost by nearly $21 million after taxes and increased net revenues by almost $24 million, a net gain of nearly $45 million. 

"Drug development costs continue to rise despite ongoing efforts across the breadth of pharmaceutical and biotech companies to curtail spending," said Joseph A. DiMasi, director of economic analysis at Tufts CSDD and principal investigator for the study. "The results of this study suggest potential financial benefits from single-source contracting."

In addition to the economic impact for sponsors, the Tufts CSDD study concludes that a single-source partner can shorten the time needed to bring a drug to market by an average of 14 weeks. 

"Speeding up the drug development cycle not only reduces time and costs for pharmaceutical companies, it also accelerates the speed at which medicines reach the hands of doctors and patients worldwide who are waiting for these life-saving therapies," said Michel Lagarde, senior vice president and president of pharma services, Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The Tufts CSDD study was supported by a grant from Patheon, now a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisheroffers a comprehensive, integrated and highly customizable set of solutions to help customers of all sizes satisfy complex development and manufacturing needs at all stages of the pharmaceutical life cycle.