An interview with Dr. Timothy S. Oostdyk, Eurofins

Which stages of the drug development process can effectively be outsourced to contract service providers such as yours?

Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing provides scientific support services throughout all stages of the drug development process, from preclinical and clinical studies to commercialisation. The reality is that outsourcing strategies continue to evolve, and there is a continuum from very tactical approaches to address discrete needs, to wholesale outsourcing of complete programs. I expect this will continue to be the case for many years to come as it simply makes sense to have this flexibility, depending on whether a target entity is being developed in-house or is fully outsourced.

We have designed our operations and offerings to effectively serve this continuum of needs. We want to be highly effective for our customers regardless of whether they have a discrete need, or are looking to hand over all aspects of a full development program, or are supplementing their in-house quality control operations. We have developed the most comprehensive offering of large and small molecule testing services in the industry and all manner of development, manufacturing and process support.

You have a large global footprint. Can you tell me what the benefits of such a wide network of labs are and what your future plans are?

There is an interesting dynamic in contract testing for the biopharma industry in that there is a dichotomy in terms of very local/regional testing activity, versus global/international activity where the testing site is less important. We have built the Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing platform to effectively address both needs. With 22 laboratories worldwide (17 in Europe), we have the regional presence and expertise to provide testing services to local manufacturing and development sites, and the geographic reach to support global manufacturers and development organisations with needs at multiple sites and in multiple markets. Essentially, we are where our clients need us to be…