Pharma firms turn to outsourcing to boost value of aging drug portfolios

For many years pharma companies treated legacy brands as low-maintenance cash generators, focusing only on steady but declining revenue once patents expired.

With the largest patent cliff in history approaching, mature products now account for an estimated 20% to 40% of annual revenue for major firms, and that share could rise without portfolio rebalancing.

Strategic outsourcing is presented as a way to extract more value from these assets, allowing companies to apply specialized resources and reduce internal inefficiencies that erode margins.