Contract Manufacturing In Biotech: Turning Your Supply Chain Into A Competitive Differentiator

By Wayne Woodard

Global supply chains are often underutilized assets. By embracing the concept of variabilization- transforming fixed costs to variable costs, biotech companies can significantly leverage their supply chain, thereby freeing up valuable resources for new product launches or other priority initiatives. Key to this strategy is finding and engaging a knowledgeable and dependable contract manufacturer. Potential contract manufacturers must keep intellectual property (IP) safe, meet necessary regulatory requirements, and provide excellent cost effective client support. The first step in leveraging the supply chain is bringing together the contract manufacturer with operational and change-management leaders. By starting on a project where all parties are confident of success, a firm base is established for improving supply chain leverage.