The next dollar hunt: pharma pops the IT pill

Financial Express
After the BPO boom, the pharmaceutical industry could be the next big vertical for the Indian IT giants who make top dollars by doing outsourcing work for western companies. Increased competitiveness along with the pressure to cut the lead time in developing a new drug and validating it through clinical trials besides cost pressures have seen multinational drug majors heading to India to outsource their work to IT companies who have the domain knowledge. To be fair, leading Indian pharma companies are also treading the same line as their MNC counterparts. According to an estimate, the drug companies outsourcing operations in India is currently pegged at $20 million but is projected to cross $2 billion in the next 10 years. A significant share of this would go to IT companies. more...