Considerations And Strategies For Hiring Biopharma Consultants
By Life Science Connect Editorial Staff
Recently, Outsourced Pharma Live welcomed a panel of experts to discuss the evolving role consultants in the industry and best practices for working with consultants as a part of your outsourcing strategy. The experts included the CEO of an emerging biotech, the former president and CEO of a well-known CDMO, and consultants who have served both pharmaceutical and contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) organizations.
The Value of Consultants
Consultants have become an indispensable part of the pharma/biopharma industry, regardless of modality. Capable organizations accept that gaps exist in their in-house knowledge and expertise. Except for a tiny percentage of companies with the resources to do so, most organizations do not have the budget or workload to justify a team spanning all possible subspecialties. So, those gaps typically are filled with consultants.
When you tap a good consultant, their network becomes your network. Moreover, as an increasing number of organizations are completely or partially virtual, consultants are a vital physical presence in locations with which the client may be unfamiliar (e.g., with culture, local regulations, etc.). Accordingly, not just any consultant will do. Decision-makers within the company need to have a clear understanding of where and how each consultant adds value to delivering products and services for the company’s clients. If those goals are not being met, time and money are being wasted until a change is made.
Where do I Find a Consultant?
First, determine why you want to hire consultants. What kind of consultant will be necessary to fill knowledge or experience gaps at each stage of your project, from process development and clinical trials to partnering with CDMOs? This exercise requires an understanding of what your company will look like in a year or in five years, both in a business sense and culturally.
With that information in hand, it is time to seek candidates and start interviews. Typically, consultants are sourced through referrals or consultancy firms with a roster of experts across numerous areas (e.g., CMC, pharmacokinetics, etc.). But keep an open mind: the right consultant can be somebody you bumped into at a networking event or a webinar. Other projects funded through venture capital (VC) companies will see the VC insist you use consultants it provides.
A word of warning about referrals, though: a consultant who worked well for a colleague’s project may not be a good fit for yours. Some projects fail simply because the organization did not reach out to people with broader experience. Interviewing several consultants to understand their experience, breadth of knowledge, and some of their philosophy before making a decision can help avoid common problems.
Reaching out to a consulting group — versus individual consultants — compounds the knowledge of experience and can cut down on full-time equivalent (FTE) costs. Individual consultants hired for disparate tasks do not always communicate well with each other. The more attractive model will depend on your current and future business objectives.
Make Sure it’s the “Right” Consultant
Consultant hiring and retention must be a dynamic process. Your needs change as your business changes and as your drug development cycle moves forward, making exploratory discussion with each consultant, in advance, imperative. Lay out some of your organizational challenges. The best consultants share some knowledge or advice during these early conversations that highlight their knowledge, experience, and flexibility. Publications or blogs to which those consultants have contributed can provide similar insights into how they operate and what they have accomplished.
Situations can arise where timelines are not on your side, and interviewing candidates for fit — beyond their resume — is not possible. But if it is not a fast turnaround situation, always take the time to interview the consultant. The “right” consultant will exhibit the same working style and drive you expect of your own personnel. They will be up-front about their capability, and often can suggest someone from their network if a project is not a good fit for them.
It is not enough for a consultant to pull the right levers; how they do so also matters. If the consultant does not share your organization’s core values, the relationship will not be sustainable. Problems arise in every project, and it is vital that the consultant can pivot with you in both action and philosophy. Finally, one of the most important attributes is among the most difficult to predict: find a consultant willing to stand up to you, to tell you when a decision or action is wrong, why, and what a better path might look like.
Again, keep in mind that what worked for others may not fit your project, because there is a marked difference between having inadequate expertise and having the wrong fit. The latter is probably a bigger problem because bad consultants generally don't last long on a project. Adept consultants, meanwhile, do not see themselves as one-sided advocates for their clients. They mediate the relationship between their client and the manufacturer or other partners, explaining the latter’s capabilities and roles, as well as what to expect and how best to communicate expectations. Generally, fewer surprises means a better chance at successful outcomes.
When possible, it is a good idea to involve a consultant or consulting group in a small project over a handful of hours. This “test drive” can reveal positive indicators about a consultant that merit awarding them a more significant opportunity. Regardless, make sure you set clear boundaries and precise early deliverables so you can judge their performance objectively and accurately.
Consultants are Vetting You, too
Whether you are bringing in a consultant to fill knowledge gaps in a small portion of your project or to sort through sophisticated licensing or IP transactions, knowing how to value that consultant is important. You are seeking specific knowledge, not global expertise, and both your compensation and treatment of the consultant will speak volumes. This industry is a small world: relationships are built and toppled based on reputation and word of mouth.
As such, treat consultants as you would your own personnel. Make them feel they are part of the team, rather than outsiders. In addition to positive engagement and base pay, this can include awarding cash bonuses or equity. In short, let them know in word and deed that they are not just performing a remedial service; they are part of the mission, creating value for the company, its assets, and (where applicable) public shareholders.
In terms of compensation, you typically get what you pay for. It should go without saying, but don’t lowball people. Similarly, if a consultant accomplishes their work much faster than I expected (i.e., because of their experience or because they leveraged documentation they had in-hand), acknowledge the excellence. Perhaps, pay a bonus on top of their billed hours. Such positivity and recognition goes a long way and inevitably finds its way back to you.
The fact is, good consultants are expensive – the best know their worth and often charge even more — consultants regularly charge between $250 and $500/hour, depending on their specialty and experience. Typically, though, paying for high quality rewards you with efficiency. Good consultants accomplish more in fewer hours.
So, on a net basis, the cost difference between an average consultant and a premium one may not be much. In some cases, the overall cost is less. When attempting to determine a more precise figure, it is helpful to have a clearly defined scope of work (e.g., a manufacturing cost analysis for seven steps) when reaching out to consultants, allowing them to better calculate how many hours the project may require, or to set a fixed fee based on their own estimate of the work involved.
It also warrants mention that higher-quality consultants usually are much more seasoned. Consider a publicly traded company that needs to present its progress and findings to investors. More experienced, industry veteran consultants tend to be more proficient in presenting to those investors, much to their clients’ benefit.
Consultants Drive the Current Market
The human genome project was completed less than 25 years ago. Particularly in the biologics space, people who cut their teeth during that time and grew with the industry throughout the 1990s and early 2000s are nearing potential retirement. This aging out of a very experienced population of pharmaceutical executives — either through mandatory retirement or early retirement incentive packages — has led to many brilliant folks who may be looking for part-time consulting work.
This bolus of talent entering the market particularly benefits small and virtual companies. Thus, timing is a major driver in the current consulting renaissance. Maintaining a comprehensive staff is expensive, as is maintaining brick-and-mortar locations. Skillful application of consultants, in this climate, is beneficial for both the pharmaceutical/biopharma clients and the consultants themselves.
Consultants offer unmatched flexibility. They can work on multiple projects at a time and they're not beholden to one contract research organization (CRO) or CDMO. Because of this broad reach, they are a valuable source of market intelligence. Consultants generally have a much better read on the direction of market costs, where bottlenecks exist, which companies are doing well, and more. Thus, in addition to expertise, they bring a unique perspective most organizations would not otherwise have access to.
Our panel of experts for this edition of Outsourced Pharma Live were Martin Lehr, co-founder and CEO, Context Therapeutics; Kurt Nielsen, PhD, Senior Advisor and co-founder, Longview Leader; Antiksha Joshi, Director, Urmi Quality Management Consulting Pty Ltd.; Brian James, PhD, COO, Rondaxe Pharma LLC; and Perry Calias, PhD, Pharmaceutical Development Consultant and co-founder, Educational Trainers and Consultants. To learn more, watch the Outsourced Pharma Live event here.