Increased levels of mergers and acquisitions activity in the pharmaceutical sector has led to greater demand for healthcare contractors, according to the latest research from umbrella employment provider giant group.

The company’s analysis of the healthcare market found that the number of contractors working at pharmaceutical companies increased by +10%, year-on-year.

Further opportunities are predicted in the sector as 12% of respondents expect there to be more demand over the next 12 months, representing an increase of +7 percentage points compared with figures recorded in 2013.

Much of this activity can be attributed to the heightened levels of M&A activity in the sector over recent months. There have been 14 reported mergers and acquisitions worth more than a billion dollars in healthcare so far this year and this is driving the creation of roles for the contractor base.

Suggestions that permanent headcount at the pharmaceutical companies involved in mergers and acquisition will continue to drop has add greater credence to the belief that opportunities for contract workers will increase.

Matthew Brown, Managing Director of giant group, commented: “The M&A activity is certainly behind much of the increase in roles. Any time such massive strategic partnerships are undertaken there will always be opportunities for contractors and this is obviously no different. Expertise will be required to deal with swathes of added regulation and financial work that these types of mergers create and that can only come from the contracting market.”

“We predict that this influx of new roles will continue as the healthcare M&A arena shows no sign of slowing down. The sector has had some well-publicised difficulties with developing new products and this activity can be seen as an attempt to drive innovation, as well as secure tax breaks for the organisations involved. Contractors will continue to benefit from these deals and will be highly sought after as the mergers intensify,” he added.