By Scott Gottlieb, M.D. Last week I wrote a column on Forbes.com saying that Merck’s (nyse: MRK - news - people ) choice of manufacturing expert Richard Clark as its new CEO was a sign of things to come for the drug industry. Big pharma’s quest for finding innovative drugs would soon take a backseat to operating efficiency. Click here to stay one step ahead of FDA actions with Forbes’ free weekly Biotech Insider e-letter. Merck, like all of the big drug makers, is going to need to become financially more efficient in order to restore itself to its former profitability and maintain its dividends. One way it can achieve this goal is to embrace outsourcing.
