The paradigm of drug development outsourcing is in a period of rapid transition coupled with a growing market in a competitive space. Today’s service providers are hardly recognizable from a decade ago and if the continued evolution in the market is any indicator, it is safe to say the next decade holds a similar promise.   With these rapid changes, the evolving strategic nature of the pharmaceutical/ biotech business and the ongoing and evolving needs of clients, the age-old question is more relevant today than ever – Can CROs meet the needs of the industry to improve upon developing drugs in the future?

Trends come, and they go, but one thing remains: Provide consistent and reliable service with the required expertise and capacity, at a fair price; the opportunities will be there. Over the last 30+ years in the CRO business one thing remains clear – Clients still expect (and need) great service combined with the expertise needed to get the job done. It seems lately that “great service” is falling out of favor in the new paradigms where many larger CROs are focused more on consolidating acquired small to mid-size CROs to gain market share and as a result are focused less on the service aspect.

If you listen closely to the industry you can hear the impact of service provider consolidation in the form of issues with increasing delays to get projects started and a multitude of service related concerns. Clients are quick to share that, “The service level is not what it used to be. They only want my business if they can have it all. They can’t start for at least 4 months.”

Consolidation in the CRO industry is expected to continue at a record pace for the next 2-3 years. The disruption caused by acquisition and integration processes are impacting how many of the “acquired” organizations perform. The result of such transitions is creating an ever-increasing gap in the mid-market CRO service providers who have been a critical link in the strategy for many in the pharma and biotech industry’s success.  Often, these service-oriented organizations are the small to mid-size biotech company’s provider of choice when it comes to reliable service at the quality needed and at a price that creates value for everyone.

KCAS is determined to meet the unmet needs of the industry by changing its approach to make sure we can offer the service, expertise and performance needed to meet the growing trend in industry who are seeking more service-oriented providers. KCAS has responded with recruiting industry leading expertise, increased capacity, modernizing capabilities combined with recruiting the technical expertise needed to meet the ever-widening gap in service focused CROs required to meet today’s high expectations. KCAS has recently established focused expertise and expanded capacity in Discovery services, Protein analyses by mass spectrometry, advanced ligand binding assays, and dose solution analyses just to name a few. In combination with this new leadership and expertise, KCAS has more than doubled its work force with talented and motivated individuals ready to serve the industry. Our staff have recently been recruited with significant combined leadership experience from pharma and CROs alike. We have implemented a fully validated LIMS (Watson) system. We have updated our facility and our IT infrastructure and security systems.

KCAS will continue to evolve to meet industry’s demand for a service provider who brings the expertise to the table, but hasn’t forgotten that the ability to work closely and responsively with clients is critical to mutual success.

Maybe that’s been the reason for KCAS’ recent success with clients who need responsive and focused expertise on their programs. Maybe it’s the fact that we are committing major investments into improving infrastructure, facilities and equipment. Maybe it’s the fact that KCAS was recognized as one of the best Companies to work for, maybe it’s one of the reasons our business is being recognized as one of the best companies to do business with or maybe it’s because we are serious about developing a culture of performance and provide real opportunities for our team. Whatever it is, KCAS is building an organization that understands that our job is to support our clients drug development needs, and to do that well, we will develop and provide the necessary expertise, continually increase our wide range of capabilities, while always providing exceptional service.