ARTICLES BY LOUIS

• Pfizer's Key Questions For CMO Innovation

  10/5/2016

  As it turns out, Bernie Huyghe of Pfizer has a flair for interrogative statements. This has served him well as a leader in the biopharmaceuticals and vaccines outsourcing group at the company. It also helped lead a room full of bio/pharma and CMO professionals through the subject of innovation in the external development and supply chain.

• Pharma's Super Heroes Of Innovation

  10/3/2016

  The supply chain is Pharma’s new super hero of innovation. But like any super hero, drug development and manufacturing providers struggle with a dual identity. One is conservative, steadfast, an order-taker. The other – the one Pharma wants today – breaks out into innovation and ingenious solutions. Can CMOs serve Metropolis in both capacities? We’ll find some answers in this sneak preview.

• Top (Secret) Quality Concerns For Selecting CMOs: How Important Are Records?

  9/27/2016

  Five experts go undercover to prioritize a secret top-ten list of quality topics for Pharma and Bio sponsors selecting contract development and manufacturing organizations (CMOs). After weeks of discussion, they select a venue full of drug industry sponsors and service providers to unveil their work. They aren’t aware, though, that the audience will have its own stab at the list.

• The Price At My CMO Isn't Right … But How Do I Know?

  9/22/2016

  “What we’re doing up here is never done – focusing on that one input in public. Instead of focusing on money, you talk openly about ‘value.' Well, what is that? Or it’s all about ‘relationships.’ The industry talks partnership in public, but behind closed doors, aren’t prices and costs closing or breaking outsourcing business deals?”

• Riding With The Drug “Serializers” Of Pharma

  9/19/2016

  A recent article with GSK mentioned the assistance Pharma is receiving from external serialization vendors and partners. Like in Wild West movies, the initial decision to bring in these benevolent gunslingers — I call them serializers — is difficult. Unlike the movies, though, there’s no moral equivalence: Few pharmaceutical companies — or packaging service providers — will achieve timely serialization compliance without this outside help.

• GSK's Global Strategy For Serialization

  9/12/2016

  The biopharma industry throws around the term “serialization” as if it were some global singularity to be tamed by an equally universal, technical silver bullet. Terry Crawford, Serialization Technical Manager at GSK, quickly shoots down that type of talk.

• Waldorf Departure Drama For DCAT?

  8/20/2016

  I didn’t quite buy into the DCAT announcement regarding its departure from the Waldorf Astoria, the long-time central location for DCAT Week in New York City each spring. Call me cynical—a degree in public relations can do that – but I just couldn’t believe “checking out” of the Waldorf would be as easy as it sounded. I took this cynicism directly to Margaret Timony, Executive Director of the Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association.

• Biopharma Leadership Through Troubled Waters

  8/10/2016

  At the turn of the 21st century, a rare, Houston-based biotech, busy pursuing the development of its own drugs and IP, discovers it has a sought-after talent for viral vector manufacturing. It decides to pursue contract manufacturing. This begins a tale of how devoted leadership in the midst of significant difficulties can provide a saving grace … and strengthen careers.

• Leadership Lessons From Oil Patches To Biopharma Plants

  8/8/2016

  From the oil patches of Wyoming to biomanufacturing in southern California, this is a tale of living your career, and the essence of leadership. “There’s a recurring theme of including people, taking calculated risks, learning about yourself, and being damn stubborn,” says David Enloe, President and CEO at Ajinomoto Althea, Inc. “Maybe not quite in that order.”

• Grunenthal's Technology Model For The 21st Century

  8/1/2016

  We’re entering our era of technology. It’s transferring preeminence from science to tech innovation. New players will enter; traditional biopharma will retool. Tech implementation of all hues will coalesce in the outsourcing model. Grünenthal of Aachen, Germany, is a leader in this new paradigm. Alexander Kraus, VP Product Development, Technical and Government Affairs, Grünenthal USA, Inc., explains how and why.