CRO clusters swell as outsourcing gets hot

The cold winds sweeping through the biotech industry a year ago forced a slew of developers to huddle up. Budgets were chopped, positions lost and outsourcing--which has long been a favored biotech strategy--became a dominant theme for the hardy survivors. It turns out that's a pretty hot trend now if you're in the CRO business. Xconomy and Assay Depot joined hands recently and mapped 144 companies in the San Diego area that are providing contract services to life sciences companies. And to help developers sort it all out, Assay Depot came up with a handy map that provides a name and URL to link to. The contract companies "create efficiencies and cost-savings and a level of expertise that biotechs would not otherwise have," Joe Panetta, the CEO of Biocom, tells Xconomy. Report [1]