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The healthcare sector has seen massive transformation in the past few decades owing to technological advancements and digitization. This has paved way for new opportunities in healthcare business outsourcing or Life Sciences BPO which is emerging as a major driver of growth in the healthcare industry.
Overview of Life Sciences BPO
Life Sciences BPO refers to outsourcing non-core business functions and services related to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. Some key functions and services that are commonly outsourced in Life Sciences BPO include:
Regulatory Affairs
Compliance with regulations is of utmost importance for life sciences companies. Regulatory affairs outsourcing involves handling regulatory documentation and submissions, project management, clinical trial management, quality control and auditing. Regulatory BPO companies employ experts who are well-versed with regulations of different geographies and help life sciences companies stay compliant.
Clinical Research
Clinical research is a critical but resource intensive aspect of drug development. Life sciences companies often outsource clinical data management, site management, patient recruitment and retention, trial design, report writing and other clinical research functions. This allows them to focus resources on core areas while clinical research organizations handle trials efficiently. Various phases of clinical research from phase I to phase IV are commonly outsourced. Companies ensure patient safety and data quality are not compromised.
Medical Writing
Medical writing involves developing documentation for research publications, patent applications, clinical study reports, patient education brochures etc. It requires strong domain expertise and knowledge of target audience. Many pharmaceutical companies outsource medical writing as it is a non-core task and medical writing specialists employed by BPOs can develop high quality documentation faster. This helps companies to publish research, file IP faster and provide patients with relevant information.
Sales and Marketing Support
Sales team management, tele-detailing, analytics for sales forecasting, marketing campaign management, continuing medical education, customer relationship management are some sales and marketing functions often outsourced. BPO companies deploy their multi-channel sales and marketing teams to promote new drugs for life sciences clients. This improves sales productivity and marketing ROI without requiring companies to build large in-house sales teams.
Advantages of Outsourcing to Life Sciences BPO
Cost Savings
Outsourcing clinical research, medical writing and other non-core functions frees up resources for life sciences companies to focus on innovation. Using specialized offshore BPO teams also results in significant cost savings up to 30-50% compared to in-house functions.
Access to Expertise
Life sciences BPO providers employ large pools of skilled professionals including medical scientists, clinicians, data managers, biostatisticians etc. This huge talent bench is not feasible for client companies. Outsourcing gives access to best global expertise and talent.
Speed and Flexibility
BPO companies are able to scale up/down teams quickly based on project needs. This flexible resourcing model suits fluctuating workload of life sciences companies and helps fast-track development programs.
Compliance Management
BPO vendors adhere to strict compliance standards like GCP, GDPR etc. They ensure client compliance needs are met through rigorous SOPs, audits and certification. This reduces compliance risks for brands.
Future Outlook
The global life sciences BPO market size is projected to grow at over 10% CAGR and reach a value of 50 Billion by 2025. Growing R&D investment, pressure to reduce costs and shift to patient-centric care are compelling factors for life sciences companies to increase BPO usage. Functional areas like data analytics, artificial intelligence, real world evidence generation are expected to see higher outsourcing. Countries like India and China will continue dominating the landscape owing to large skilled workforce and infrastructure. More companies are also expected to move entire business units and non-core functions to specialized BPO partners to streamline operations. With increased adoption, the life sciences BPO industry is poised for significant growth in the coming years.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
