The Boston Business Journal ran a story this past week on the increasing number of contract research organizations in the Boston area and around the nation.

The article profiled Blue Stream Laboratories, a Woburn contract research organization with eight employees that launched the summer of 2006, reporting that Blue Stream Laboratories President Michael Kouchakdjian had indicated that “his client base is growing as biotechnology companies and contract pharmaceutical manufacturers try to save money by farming out development work to companies like his.”

The Boston Business Journal article provides further evidence that  outsourcing is on the rise in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries–a trend we have been following at the California Biotech Law Blog since last year (see our blog postings from May 23, 2007 and April 2, 2007).  As we have indicated previously, it is almost inevitable that outsourcing will continue to play an increasing role in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, given the success that the high tech industry has had with offshore outsourcing in recent years. If companies can dramatically cut their costs by outsourcing work, why wouldn’t they pursue that option in order to become more profitable?  I think it is difficult to deny the clear business case for utilizing outsourcing to the extent possible.  I expect that we will continue to see more stories on outsourcing in the life sciences industry over the next few years.