With all the outsourcing that drugmakers have undertaken in recent years, it should come as no surprise that contract manufacturing, in particular, is forecast to mushroom over the next several years. To be specific, revenue from this activity is expected to hit $64 billlion by 2016 and more than double between now and 2021, according to a report from Visiongain. Driving this growth will be manufacturing of finished dosage forms, as this segment is expected to generated compounded annual growth of 8.7 percent between now and 2016. Although production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, remained the largest sector for the contract manufacturing industry worldwide last year, accounting for 71% of the total market.
