You may have seen this question before.  I really need an answer fast
so I have re submitted it with a larger price tag.  Please let me know
what troubles you are having ...

From what I gather: GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) lab conditions
are required for the R&D and manufacturing of pharmaceuitcals/drugs. 
A GMP lab must meet certain standards.
 
 
What I would like to know is how many GMP standard labs there are
worldwide.
 
Apparently the number of GMP labs worldwide could be
estimated from either:
1) How many different pharmaceuitcals/drugs there are worldwide 
2) How many pharmaceuitcal companies there are worldwide and what is
the average number or products they have
 
An answer to one of these questions would be great, ballpark figures
are fine.
 
Many Thanks ...

Mowgly (any relation to Mowgli, from The Jungle Book?),

I think you'll have better luck getting an answer if you can clarify
your question a bit.  As it now stands, you seem to be mixing up
manufacturing facility and laboratory facilities.  In the U.S., the
FDA has both GMP standards (for manufacturers) and GLP standards (for
research facilities). Other countries make similar distincitions,
although there are some very real differences in how manufacturers and
research facilities are regulated from one country to the next.

Are you looking for:

the number of companies that manufacture drugs?
the number of actual facilities that manufacture drugs? (one company
can have many facilities)
the number of laboratories doing drug-related research (and if this is
it, do you want only industry labs, or university labs as well).

The clearer the question, the more likely you are to get a quick and
satisfactory response.

Thankyou kindly for your interest in this question.  As you will have
gathered, it's a bit of an urgent one ... stupid deadlines!  Mowgly
... yes, in relation to the jungle book - a nickname given to a small
hairy guy by his mates :)

As for the question ...

I am after an estimation of the number of actual facilities that
manufacture drugs including multiple facilities within the one company

OR

A means to estimate this figure by the number of drugs out there
(apparently this corresponds, roughly, to the number of
facilities/labs, as they use one setup per drug - sure a big
approximation but that's OK)

Either will suffice,

Cheers ... I do appreciate it

Hi, 

I worked for a lab once as a systems admin. I believe that any company
in the US even thinking about developing drugs has to use GMP. As for
the world I'm not sure, but in order to be looked at for FDA approval
the lab must have GMP standards in place through the whole process.
Hope that helps you.

webadept-ga

Here's some data from the Census Bureau for the numnber of
pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (not companies!) in the United
States in 2000.  It's a start, anyway:

http://censtats.census.gov/cbpnaic/cbpnaic.shtml


NAICS code
32541 Pharmaceutical & medicine mfg 1,823 facilities total,
sub-divided into:

     325411 Medicinal & botanical mfg 345 
     325412 Pharmaceutical preparation 906 
     325413 In-vitro diagnostic substance 216 
     325414 Biological product (exc diagnostic) mfg 356

I'm not sure that the relationships you cite, ie number of
pharmaceuticals or number of companies is actually all that relevant. 
A single company might have one or a number of production facilities,
plus there might be other companies producing the same product under
licence around the world.  Then you have to include the production of
generic drugs.  One such drug could be being produced in numerous
facilities of numerous companies.  Also, there are the additional
components of a drug, eg excipients, gelatin capsules etc.  These will
also need to be produced under GMP, but again could be produced by
numerous manufacturers worldwide.