Abstract
Niche Participants to Gain Partnership Opportunities from Large Companies
Smaller participants are in danger of being nudged out by larger vendors with
deep pockets and service capabilities to survive extreme price fluctuations.
Intent on acquiring key top-tier customers, larger multiverticals are pushing
combined service and product solutions, often at market floor rates achieved
through local subcontracting. Smaller companies are being forced to prove their
long-term financial viability to be considered in the running. Nevertheless,
niche participants are likely to attract the large companies that wish to
penetrate smaller pockets such as the discovery IT business. Such collaborations
will help the big participants form long-term relationships with their buyers.
This Frost & Sullivan research examines the R&D Information
Technology Markets for the U.S. Life Sciences Industry. It offers revenue
forecasts by market segments and covers key drivers and restraints affecting
market growth. It also provides strategic recommendations to overcome market
challenges. It analyzes the growth of demand from workflow specific systems to
architecture technologies like grid computing and next generation databases.
Large Vendors Can Cross-Leverage Technology to Maximize Profits
IT in life sciences starts with end-user applications. Established end-user
application providers have built an entrenched core competency in the life
sciences vertical, which has acted to create a strong inside affiliation among
research chemists and other strong influencers over time.
The real interest in 2003 is coming from relatively industry neutral IT
segments such as data storage, computing, and grid technology. Vendors from
these segments can cost-effectively leverage their products into the life
sciences market by aggressively pursuing partnership channels with these
established end-user applications vendors.
Changing Business Models to Dictate the IT Market
The phasing out of blockbuster drugs is being expedited by drug
manufacturers' struggle to increase their long-term pipelines. Newer strategies
place the accent on a 'multibuster' approach to drug research, which discards a
bottleneck-ridden 'single drug for all' method in favor of smaller, specialized
drugs. "This will have diverse benefits as the workflow and research
process will expand manifold into compartmentalized research areas to produce
specialized therapies in shorter periods," notes the analyst.
Although the multibuster approach is still only in the exploratory phase
among most research organizations, it has enough merit to pass as a compelling
business case. "If this happens, workflow tools, data management, and
laboratory information management systems vendors will gain most from it,"
remarks the analyst.
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