Outsourcing the Drug Industry

Interesting article in the most recent BusinessWeek magazine entitled Outsourcing the Drug Industry. The article details the efforts of Big Pharma companies to develop drug discovery partnerships with companies in China and India. According to the article,

"What the multinationals now seek from India is the same combination of brainpower and cost savings that made the subcontinent a leader in software and computer services....[And] the impact of research outsourcing will be amplified greatly as China, with an even bigger pool of biochemists, expands its role."

But the article does note that,

"The rush east, where five PhD chemists can be had for the cost of one in the West, entails risks."