I've been in a superficially similar position in the IT industry, where the option was to be a contract employee through an umbrella company or to have my own Ltd company, which also had to bill through the contract company, but got paid at a lower rate!
The problem I had was that the primary employer (the pharma company, in your friend's case) would only deal with one umbrella company for contractors (which they owned!). Is this the case with your friend or would it be possible to set up a Ltd company and contract directly with the pharma company?