With the advancement of technology, pharmaceutical companies must continually adapt to the new and unpredictable landscape. Efficiency, scalability, and compliance are critical for success. With drug discovery becoming more complex, challenging, and expensive, many pharmaceutical companies particularly smaller firms and mid-sized firms are utilizing contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) as a way to achieve a faster time to market for their pharmaceutical products and thus more profitability ultimately. This practical guide looks at the basic elements of contract manufacturing in the pharmaceutical field, advantages of utilizing such organizations, important considerations for using CMOs and insight on how to select the right contract manufacturing partner.