Beyond "Subpar Service" And "Difficult Sponsors" To The Symmetries Of Success
By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma
Subpar customer service at CDMOs is no longer something sponsors tolerate; there’s enough competition where you can move on. The other side of the coin is how difficult sponsors sink to the bottom of CDMO priorities; providers also have options.
Shibboleth-sounding terms like “subpar service” and “difficult sponsors” speak less to technical components of outsourcing, and more to mutual satisfactions from working together to fulfill contractual arrangements and missions.
Biotechs question whether their CDMO is delivering as promised and working as “a good partner,” but Kim believes they should also turn the questioning around.
- Do we know how to be a good customer?
- What does the CDMO expect from us at each stage of development and manufacturing?
- How can we help the CDMO help us – and thrive in the process?
In other words:
Sponsor and CDMO can facilitate each other's success through a positive working relationship, and this experience extends to competitive advantage for both.
What Does “Good Customer” Mean?
Kim’s experiences suggest considering your behaviors towards your CDMO will positively affect all the other scientific, technical, and production-related aspects of outsourcing.
In the past, while working at a pharma organization with a CDMO arm, he saw sponsors and CDMOs of all sizes negotiate, collaborate, but then disappoint instead of grow together.
Kim says outsourcing relationships start with identifying a CDMO who can handle your science, technology and clinical/commercial candidates. “But you do look for a CDMO that talks about partnerships, and wanting to help us succeed,” he says.
“I need that same attitude instilled in my team. We must commit as well.”
Commitment as in:
- assigning team members responsible for making the timely decisions and provide the information external partners need
- offering realistic forecasts, but senior-management attention when speed bumps arise, and swift communications should market or regulatory circumstances change
- learning about your CDMOs managerial and operational methodologies as well as their facility specifics such as equipment trains and quality systems
- and it can often mean taking on an attitude whenever you can commit to future business
Putting these together, says Kim, a biotech should know precisely what commitments are needed for you to raise your position in the CDMO’s customer hierarchy.
Purposeful Musical Chairs
Where do we sit? is a good question for both sides.
We treat every customer the same is a pat reply from CDMOs.
But be cautions: while this may only be aspirational (and well intentioned), established CDMOs, for example, have substantial client bases. You are competing against many clients bigger than you.
The reality is you in fact may be relegated initially to the lower end of the pecking order. “So you attempt to change that,” says Kim.
A CDMO can value every customer while still having to make decisions when two customers need the same manufacturing suite, technical experts, or delivery dates. Someone gets the slot, the senior scientist, a faster response.
The task is for the biotech to become a customer the CDMO has a reason to prioritize.
You get prioritized because you are responsive and flexible; you negotiate and structure reasonable contracts.
None of this will put you in the ranks of a Big Pharma customer. Still, these behaviors improve the relationship so the CDMO can envision a (profitable) future together, beyond what might be a relatively small project currently.
Kim suggests you always want the CDMO to consider how big your company and program can become, and it can't hurt to ask directly:
How important do you think we could become?
Listen carefully to that reply. Ask what’s needed now for both sides to make that future projection of growth a reality.
A Tale Of Transition
There can be enormous value in being an early, committed customer to a CDMO developing a new capability.
Often, CDMOs – keeping up with the constant introduction of new science and technology, and the need for platform solutions and costly equipment – add capabilities, and hang a new sign on their facility “Now open for XXX services.”
Some sponsors take this as a warning sign to stay away until experience is gained and a track record established.
Others like Kim see this as a perfect opportunity to add the sponsor’s agency to the CDMO’s efforts to grow. “Let us help you” rings out from both sides. In this case, it is a strong mutual endorsement of the relationship.
Kim has seen this work; where a customer of a CDMO’s new area of “expertise” worked out a contractual and personal relationship to gain experience, and add capacity as needed.
The CDMO took on early projects that began to fill out its technical prowess; the biotech committed to future work. The program began moving through the clinic.
According to Kim, soon other customers – including Big Pharma – started inquiring about capacity. The CDMO contracted for that work, but (getting back to our point earlier) in practice continued to treat the original biotech as the highest priority.
The biotech had taken a calculated outsourcing risk, helped the CDMO build its book of business, and increased its own changes of clinical success. The CDMO was reasonable, flexible, and remained committed.
The most effective relationships are always those built on the symmetries of success.
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An earlier discussion with Hyung Heon Kim, CEO and President of MetaVia is here: