ARTICLES BY LOUIS

• Cell-Therapy Outsourcing And The Flip Of A Coin

  1/24/2022

  “Heads” and external partners are extraordinary enablers, providing access lanes to expertise, technologies and facilities. “Tails” and find your development programs on-ramping a clogged freeway with few service stops offering the specific assistance you need to complete your development journey.

• “Nick And the Cocoons”: Automation for Autologous Therapies

  1/18/2022

  We’ve dispensed somber analysis on a lack of assistance from established CDMOs for cell and gene therapy developers. The critique particularly emanates from those pursuing autologous-cell or other precision-medicine approaches.  Time to give CDMOs taking the incoming criticism a chance to respond.

• Defending Your Supply Chains From “Foreign Suppliers”

  1/13/2022

  In “defense” of the integrity of your (offshore and onshore) drug development and manufacturing outsourcing, and during this year 3 CE (Covid Era): Considering suppliers as separate and somewhat removed entities – putting them at a distance – might be what it takes to subsequently bring you even closer to reliable partnerships. 

• CDMOs Can Serve CGT Companies, Make Money, And Support A Nation

  1/10/2022

  C3i Center Inc. is a CDMO on a mission to grow a national biopharma ecosphere in Canada by accelerating the commercialization of cell therapies and cancer immunotherapies. “There’s a lot of Canada in our story,” says CEO Louisa Petropoulos. She’s correct, but I found a lot of story in C3i. It’s well worth reading no matter where you reside. 

• No Joke: A Cell-Therapy Start-Up Meets A Super-Sized CDMO

  1/3/2022

  Did you hear the one about a cell-therapy start-up asking a behemoth CDMO to install its newest technology at an emerging CDMO? And the behemoth CDMO sent them some Cocoons? Part 1 of an intriguing narrative of a new outsourcing paradigm.

• Outsourcing For Duchenne: Techniques For All Biopharma

  12/28/2021

  Louise Perry, an outsourcing veteran (Amgen, Novartis and Shire) is securing the development and supply chain for a gene-transfer clinical candidate targeting Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The technique she's using at Solid Biosciences for working with CDMOs, though, is transferable to all drug developers.   

• Biopharma Require Close Relationships And Recruiting At CDMOs

  12/23/2021

  Solid Biosciences took 3 steps to ensure supply wouldn't be “a barrier to delivering for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients": Recruited manufacturing/process development experts; built a development and characterization lab; partnered with CDMOs. SVP Louise Perry and I focused on the third. 

• How A Virtual Biotech Lands A Large CDMO

  12/21/2021

  I hope you’ll agree we’ve been an honest broker when it comes to recording the frustrations emerging (and mid-sized) biopharmas have when trying to land capacity at established CDMOs. But there’s some good news of late: The tide could be turning.

• A Biotech Outsourcing For Sickle Cell Anemia

  12/16/2021

  CEOs are excellent communicators - so good, they easily slide into a bit of over-promotion. With Rahul Ballal, CEO, Imara, Inc., you get the clear communication without the ballyhoo. That’s why his tale of an incubator-bred biotech, its small-molecule program for sickle cell anemia, and outsourcing strategy, is so relatable. 

• Inflation Bites Biopharma In The Outsourcing Budget

  12/13/2021

  “I don't see how prices come down when they won't need to. Demand for outsourcing services is not going away.” “Suddenly a year from now you're going to get people to take a lower salary to do the same job?” Here's the real inflation bite at biopharma.