Pharma R&D Services Market Report, First Edition: 2024-2029

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This first edition report provides an overview of the pharma R&D services market from 2024 to 2029. Pharma services companies offer general or specialized support across discovery, preclinical, clinical, and commercial stages. While the market includes hundreds of vendors, the choice between large, full-service providers (e.g., IQVIA, ICON, Charles River) and more niche specialists (e.g., GenScript, Cryoport) depends heavily on where a pharma company is in the development process and their preference for full-service vs. functional service support.  Outsourcing decisions also vary based on a company’s resources, therapeutic focus, and modality of interest. For highly regulated and operationally intensive tasks, such as patient recruitment and site management, large CROs are often preferred. In earlier-stage, exploratory areas (like AI-driven target selection in discovery), smaller, specialized vendors have more room to play.

The pharma services market has faced recent headwinds, which persist in some segments. Ongoing macroeconomic pressures, political tensions, and evolving global relations, such as U.S. efforts to reduce drug costs and reassess dependencies on China weigh on pharma budgets, which impacts outsourcing spend, particularly for general CROs (one of the largest contributors to this market).  However, novel drug modalities and technological advancements in areas like AI, bioanalytical tools, disease models, and decentralized trial technologies are expected to spur innovation and investment in external service providers. Balancing these drivers and moderators, we estimate that the pharma R&D services market will grow from ~$101B in 2024 to approximately $129B by2029, growing at ~5% annually.

This report is informed by a comprehensive primary and secondary research campaign, including interviews with N = 35 pharma and CRO stakeholders and robust analysis of company financials, drug pipelines, partnership activity, research activity, and macroeconomic trends.  The market model is a bottom-up model based on the estimated outsourced R&D spend of small-, medium-, and large pharma companies, segmented along key service application segments. We triangulated market growth using historical and forecasted organic growth from key players.

For each of the 30+ subsegments, we provide an analysis of company trends, investments, and overall market changes for 2024,2027, and 2029. Additionally, we examine market drivers, moderators, and trends. The report also includes a high-level breakdown by customer (large, medium, and small pharma) and provider (general CROs, specialized CROs, laboratory services providers, bioinformatics companies, and CDx developers).*

*Some of the companies listed in the report may be DeciBio Consulting clients and customers.

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Segmentations Covered in Market Analysis:

Application

• Drug Discovery & Design
• Preclinical Services
• Clinical Trial Services
• Quality Control
• CDx / Dx Development
• Bioinformatic Technologies

Pharma Type

• Large (Revenue >$10B)
• Medium (Revenue $1 - $10B)
• Small (Revenue <$1B)

Therapeutic Area

• Oncology
• Rare Disease
• Neurology
• Immunology
• Cardiology
• Metabolic
• Other

Therapeutic Modality

• Small Molecule
• Protein-Based
• Cell Therapy
• Gene Therapy
• Vaccine
• Other

Company / Provider Type

• Specialized CRO
• General CRO
• Laboratory Services Provider
• CDx / Dx Developer
• Bioinformatics Company

Geography

• United States
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Rest of World

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