ARTICLES BY LOUIS

• Should You Hire Talent Away From Your CDMOs?

  8/10/2022

  There's a hiring crunch out there, and today drug sponsors are recruiting from inside some of their CDMOs. Is that a good strategy? We'll take a look at both sides of the equation.

• No Matter Modality, A Methodology For Managing CDMOs

  8/3/2022

  Steve Goodman, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has been outsourcing development and manufacturing for years. “I’ve been successful because my approach to managing a CDMO is mostly agnostic to modality,” he says. Here are a few more of his best practices.

• Executive Director, AAV: Title As Leading Indicator

  7/27/2022

  Steve Goodman’s new title at Vertex Pharmaceuticals catches the eye: Executive Director, AAV Process Development and Manufacturing. It points us to where our industry is rapidly heading. In fact, we might say Goodman himself has been a leading indicator. 

• Erase Generics From Your Vocabulary

  7/20/2022

  I first described Cosette Pharmaceuticals as an “innovative specialty generics” organization, but President & CEO Apurva Saraf had us questioning all three of those words, and how we use them (or shouldn't) today.

• Safe At Home With Generics

  7/13/2022

  “I have not wanted to go to India or China for most of my API needs, and to the extent possible I do not want to go there for formulations either,” is part of a surprising sentiment from a long-tenured generics outsourcing professional.  

• “Hypercare” When It's Critical At Your CDMO

  7/11/2022

  When it reaches criticality at your CDMO – like the potential delivery delay of clinical material – it’s "Hypercare" time. That’s the word coined at Alexion Therapeutics for an intensified coordination and managing of activities at CDMOs in crucial moments. Read on: Hypercare might be right for you, too.

• An Unexamined Life Is Risky Business

  7/1/2022

  Have you sufficiently examined the “life” of your drug development and manufacturing outsourcing? If you rely on outsourcing as an external life force to get you into and through the clinic (and perhaps beyond), how you answer that has never been more important.

• How Can We Create A More Perfect CDMO?

  6/21/2022

  We the People of the Outsourcing Industry, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Service, ensure Reliability, and secure the Blessings of our system of drug development and manufacturing, establish this Constitution for working with CDMOs. (Preamble to the Outsourcing Constitution)

• Launch Your Career At A CDMO

  6/20/2022

  Irfan Ali Mohammed went from university in New York directly to working at a CDMO in Maryland. Years later, I ask him on behalf of professionals starting out in the drug industry today: Is starting a career at a CDMO a wise decision? Here's Mohammed's reply, and more.

• Build A Great Company, Not An Acquisition Target

  6/13/2022

  A biotech’s notable success along the development/clinical path likely results in an acquisition by a larger organization. The paradox: Not planning for such acquisition brings a higher probability of that transpiring. Plan instead to build a great and sustainable company.