Companies in the life science industry are not strangers to outsourcing – clinical trials and product manufacture are frequently outsourced. Contract research organisations (CROs) are often called upon to provide traditional clinical research and data management functions. More recently, the industry has witnessed a trend for more outsourcing of mainstream functions such as finance, accounting, IT and human resources to offshore outsourcing service providers.
One of the most interesting questions that is now being asked in the industry is whether the services provided by CROs and the mainstream outsourcing service provider can be brought together. Although mainstream outsourcing service providers do not have the same level of experience or specialist knowledge as a CRO in performing traditional life science functions such as clinical data management and pharmacovigilance (the monitoring of drug safety), these are areas in which they have started to expand. India is a popular offshore location for outsourcing these sensitive functions, due largely to cost benefits and the availability of an appropriate technically skilled workforce.
