Why outsource to a contract firm when you can move some research projects to local universities, and use their best and brightest graduate students to do the work? Not a new concept, perhaps, but the trend to outsource more research and small-scale manufacturing is definitely becoming more pronounced. Purdue, Kentucky, Temple, Maryland and Iowa Universities' laboratories are doing more contract research for industrial pharma partners. (Kentucky University just announced a new clinical trials manufacturing facility with customized isolator technology that we had reported a few weeks ago).
Read this local news report for more on this trend.
-AMS