Pharmaceutical services to grow for another year

Abstract

Solid growth and sizable investments will continue in the pharmaceutical services sector as contract manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates move into a third year of navigating the unpredictable impact of the pandemic . “Aside from what you can’t predict, it’s a very good time to be in contract services,” says Wayne Weiner, who heads the consulting firm PharmaTech Solutions. “It doesn’t seem the funding will dry up for biotechs, which are really driving a lot of the innovation.” And biotech innovators without production assets are increasingly bringing drug candidates to market themselves rather than licensing to larger drug companies, thus generating longer-term contracts with service firms, Weiner says. But James Bruno, president of another consulting firm, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Solutions, sees a red flag. “I think we are going to be short on capacity all year,” he says. “Everybody seems to be booked.” Managers at service