Penetration Testing Cost for UK Pharma and Life Sciences Companies (2026)

A penetration test for a UK pharma or life sciences company typically costs £3,300 to £37,800 in the UK market. The low end is a review of one cloud environment holding trial or laboratory data. The high end covers a trial portal, its API, the cloud, the perimeter and the internal network. The price is the number of testing days multiplied by a day rate of £1,100 to £1,400.

What does a penetration test cost for a pharma or life sciences company?

Most pharma and life sciences companies fall into one of four scopes, typically costing between £3,300 and £37,800 in the UK market. What you pay depends on how many systems are tested and how many user roles each one has, because that sets the number of testing days. The table shows the typical range for each scope.

Scope	What is tested	Days	Typical UK cost
Cloud environment for trial or laboratory data	One AWS account: encryption, access scoping, audit logging and storage configuration	3 to 4 days	£3,300 to £5,600
Multi-role trial or investigator portal	Participant, investigator, site and sponsor roles, including blinding and role separation	8 to 12 days	£8,800 to £16,800
Portal plus cloud environment	The portal above, plus the cloud account that hosts it and holds the data	11 to 16 days	£12,100 to £22,400
Full life sciences programme	A multi-role portal, its API, the cloud environment, the perimeter, and the laboratory and corporate network	18 to 27 days	£19,800 to £37,800

These are market ranges, worked out from typical engagement lengths and UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400. They are a guide for budgeting. The pricing page shows the engagement lengths for each type of test, and the quote form gives an exact fixed price for your scope.

What drives the price?

The number of testing days drives the price, and the scope drives the number of days. In pharma and life sciences the biggest single factor is the number of roles. A trial platform that separates participant, investigator, site coordinator, sponsor or CRO monitor, and pharmacist or prescriber has five boundaries to test, and each one adds time.

• User roles. Every boundary between roles has to be tested: a site seeing another site’s participants, a monitor reaching data outside their study, a participant seeing anyone else’s record.
• Number of systems. An eConsent portal, a laboratory information system and a research data platform are separate tests, even when one team runs all three.
• Integrity features. Randomisation, blinding and audit trails need their own test cases, because the failure is not only a data leak but a trial result that cannot be trusted.
• Cloud estate. The number of accounts, services and regions sets the length of the cloud review. See cloud penetration testing.
• Network size. The number of internet-facing addresses, sites and Active Directory domains sets the length of the infrastructure work.

Tester grade is not a pricing factor, and neither is the size of the testing company. Two quotes for the same scope should differ mainly in the number of days. If one quote is much lower, compare the day counts first.

What is included, and what costs extra?

A quote should cover scoping, testing, the report, a walkthrough of the findings and a retest. Ask every company you approach to confirm each of those in writing, because retests and out of hours work are the two items that most often appear later as extra charges.

With EJN Labs, the quote is a fixed price for a defined scope. It includes:

• Testing by UK-based, CREST-certified testers.
• Findings in a client portal as they are confirmed, each with a CVSS score.
• The report on the last day of testing, and a walkthrough call.
• Free retests until findings are resolved.
• Out of hours slots, with no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees.

What changes the price is a change of scope: a system added after the quote, extra user roles, or a larger estate than the one described. If the scope grows, you get a new fixed price before any extra work starts.

How do you get a quote, and what will you be asked?

Send the list of systems you want tested and say who has asked for the evidence. A testing company needs a few facts about each system to count the days. Having them ready is the fastest way to get a firm price, and it makes quotes from different companies comparable.

1. Which systems are in scope: trial portals, laboratory systems, pharmacy platforms, research data, cloud accounts, networks.
2. For each portal, the list of user roles and which of them belong to outside parties such as sites, CROs or sponsors.
3. Whether a non-production environment exists, and whether it can hold synthetic or de-identified data.
4. For cloud, the number of accounts or subscriptions and which provider they sit with.
5. For the perimeter and networks, roughly how many internet-facing addresses and sites you have.
6. Who asked for the test, the exact wording of the request, and any dates to avoid, such as a database lock, an inspection or a trial milestone.

Pharma and life sciences organisations can use a CREST-accredited company or a CHECK provider, depending on what their requirement states. EJN Labs is CREST-accredited. If the sponsor’s document names an accreditation, say so when you ask for the quote.

Does a sponsor audit decide what you pay?

Indirectly. No public rule makes a sponsor or partner audit require a test, so the sponsor’s own wording decides what you buy. If it asks for Cyber Essentials Plus, that is an assessor-led audit, not a penetration test. UK GDPR Article 32(1)(d) asks for regular testing without naming the method.

How EJN Labs approaches pricing for pharma and life sciences companies

EJN Labs is a CREST-accredited UK penetration testing company with a dedicated pharma and life sciences service. We scope each system by what it does and who uses it, count the days, and give you one fixed price for the defined scope.

We test clinical trial and eConsent portals, investigator and CRO collaboration portals, laboratory information systems, online pharmacy and e-prescribing platforms, research data platforms, cloud environments, and the laboratory and corporate networks around them. Role separation between participant, investigator, site and sponsor is built into every test. Testing runs against non-production environments with synthetic or de-identified data wherever possible.

Testing is safe by default on production, with no denial of service. Retests are free until findings are resolved, so the price you agree covers the evidence that issues were fixed as well as the evidence that they were found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a penetration test cost for a pharma company?

Typically £3,300 to £37,800 in the UK market. A cloud environment review of 3 to 4 days is £3,300 to £5,600. A multi-role trial portal of 8 to 12 days is £8,800 to £16,800. A full programme of 18 to 27 days is £19,800 to £37,800. These ranges use UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400.

Why do trial platforms cost more than a standard web application?

Because they have more roles to separate and more integrity features to test. A platform with participant, investigator, site, sponsor and prescriber roles has several boundaries, and randomisation and audit trails need their own test cases. A multi-role portal is typically 8 to 12 days.

Is a retest included in the price?

It depends on the company, so ask for it in writing. With EJN Labs, retests are free until findings are resolved, and there are no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees. The quote is a fixed price for a defined scope.

How long does a penetration test take for a pharma company?

Between 3 and 27 testing days for the scopes in the table above. A cloud review is typically 3 to 4 days, a multi-role portal is 8 to 12 days, and a full programme is 18 to 27 days. EJN Labs delivers the report on the last day of testing.

Can testing be scheduled around a trial milestone or inspection?

Yes. Tell the testing company about database locks, inspections and milestones when you ask for the quote. EJN Labs offers out of hours slots at no extra charge, and agrees safe testing windows around trial, laboratory and manufacturing operations.

Get a fixed price for your pharma or life sciences company

Tell us which systems are in scope and who has asked for the evidence. Request a fixed-price quote and we will come back with the number of days, the price and the earliest start date.

Related: Sponsor and Partner Audits: Do Pharma Companies Need a Penetration Test?, Best Penetration Testing Companies for UK Pharma and Life Sciences, penetration testing for UK pharma and life sciences, penetration testing cost in the UK, web application penetration testing cost and network penetration testing cost.