countries over the past few years. Their annual turnover rate rarely exceeds $25 million. All big and medium-size fine chemical companies have cGMP-compliant plants that are suitable for the production of pharmaceutical fine chemicals. With the exception of biopharmaceuticals, which are manufactured by only a few selected fine chemical companies, (see section 3.2.2), the technology toolboxes of all these companies are similar. This means that they can carry out practically all types of chemical reactions. They differentiate on the basis of the breadth and quality of the service offering. Contract research organizations Contract research organizations (CROs) provide services to the life science industries along product development. There are more than 2000 CROs operating worldwide, representing revenues of more than $20 billion. One distinguishes between "Product" and "Patient" CROs. Whereas the production sites of CMOs are multipurpose plants, allowing for the production of tens to hundreds of tons of fine chemicals, the work places of patient CROs are the test persons (volunteers) for the clinical trials and those of the product CROs are the laboratory benches. Major customers for CRO services are the large global pharmaceutical companies. Half a dozen companies (Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck & Co.) alone absorb about one third of all CRO spending. As for CMOs also for CROs, biotech start-up companies with their dichotomy between ambitious drug development programs and limited resources are the second most promising prospects. Product CROs (chemical CROs) are providing primarily sample preparation, process research and development services. An overlap between the latter and CMOs exists with regard to pilot plants (100 kg quantities), which are part of the arsenal of both types of enterprise. There are more 100 product CROs. Most of them are privately held and have revenues of $10–$20 million per year or less, adding up to a total business in the range of $1.5-$2 billion. Their tasks are described in Chapter 5, Examples of are: In North America: Alphora; Delmar; NAEJA, all Canada. AMRI; Aptuit; Cambridge Major; ChemBridge; Innocentive; Irix Pharmaceuticals, PharmEco, all USA. In Europe; Carbogen-Amcis, Switzerland; Chemcomm, Germany; ChemDiv, Russia; Clauson-Kaas, Denmark; Enamine Ltd, Ukraine; Girindus, Germany; Nerviano Medical Sciences, Italy; Recipharm, Sweden; Serichim, Italy; Solvias, Switzerland, Netherlands. In Asia: BioDuro, Medicilon, Pharmaron; WuXi AppTec, all China; Acoris; Aptuit Laurus; Biocon / Syngene; Chembiotek; Chempartner; ProCitius, all India; NARD Institute, Riken, both Japan. The business of CROs is usually done through a