–by Erin Ortiz,  Vice President, Healthcare Practice, MSLGROUP New York

This post originally appeared on the MSLGROUP Americas blog.

India is rising. The country is on a fast-track to replace Japan as the world’s third-largest economy by 2020, outrank China in population by 2032 and the U.S. in English speakers by 2050. One of India’s main drivers of its economic rise and modernization is the outsourcing industry. In India, it is  typically divided into two main sectors: information technology (IT) /software services and business process outsourcing (BPO).

An industry that began mainly as customer service call center setups and IT services has expanded into the realm of financial analysis and accounting services, as well as medical research – including an emerging field of Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) that can provide end-to-end support for bringing a drug to patients and managing it post-launch. The creation of the CMO model turned outsourcing on its head. It was developed by leading Indian healthcare companies as a full service drug development and lifecycle management business model. With such a unique and successful approach, it grew its client base primarily among major pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe.

There is an opportunity to raise the international profile of India’s CMO services in North America and Europe to forge additional partnerships in those regions and continue to build a diverse client base. The Hanmer MSLGROUP Mumbai office represents clients who pioneered contract development and manufacturing for the pharmaceutical industry, offering companies geographical flexibility and reducing drug development time across the product lifecycle.

Earlier this year, MSLGROUP awarded me the opportunity to visit our partner offices in Delhi and Mumbai. While I was there I was introduced to several of their leading clients in the healthcare industry. I had the pleasure of meeting with one of their clients that is on the cutting edge of the CMO services field. They are reshaping the future of healthcare outsourcing in India, providing major pharmaceutical companies around the world with drug development services.

Many of our healthcare clients are already seeking drug development outsourcing services. Together we can help raise the profile of the companies we represent in the healthcare industry to demonstrate the leadership role they are taking in bringing drugs to patients through a safe and reliable medical services approach that India originally created and now has redefined with the CMO model.