CRAMS Outsourcing – Political and macro-economical implications

Outsourcing Contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) in the pharmaceutical, bio-technological and chemical industry is massive, a multi-billion dollar business. We will outline in this article how big is this business, what drives this business and what are the implications for enterprises and for the society ?

Political and macro-economical implications of outsourcing

But first let us look at outsourcing in general. Offshore “outsourcing is a problem for the US and the first world in general, because all tradable goods production and service jobs can be outsourced“, according to a McKinsey study[i], in the years 2003-2008 the number of jobs outsourced in service sectors would as by their forecast grow from 18 mio to 160 mio. It is a massive trend, affecting a segment of the workforce that was never in history subject to this kind of competition, thereof engineering most drastically affected with 55% „occupations amenable for remote locations“.

The global market for outsourcing services is seen almost 400 bio USD with a long-term growth of 6%, thereof  240 bio USD in IT services being by far the biggest sector[ii] (Gartner, 2012).