The Metaphoric Rise Of Outsourcing

By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma

We have a barrel full of metaphors for how we visualize and implement drug development and manufacturing outsourcing.

Some are thought-provoking. Others have you scratching your head. All are proffered to illuminate a universal truth or tenet about our externalization models.

Like in our everyday lives, we turn to analogy because our business relations are rarely experienced linearly, and can be served by otherworld context. It’s how we bridge disciplines; accelerate shared understanding; guide thought; and often invite enthusiasm and emotion.

And humor.

The right metaphor – as many CEOs know – can align an organization, or place a vision in front of individual teams. An apt analogy helps executives articulate meaning and direction that our individual activities, or our data (or contracts) can’t express.

In our drug industry, we are governed by the hand of strict science and technology, and led by precision professionals. But we can also overlook the intangibles, the human interactions and trust that add to, in the case of outsourcing, chances of shared success – or failures.

Experienced professionals know that where sponsor and provider relations are concerned, the human gift of language leverages are considerable abilities for mental synthesis as we conduct complex interactions.

At times, this “leverage” is provided by a dose of levity in our expressions. I selected one to parse in detail, and one other to mention more briefly.

“Working with a CDMO is like a marriage”

I haven’t run this one by my wife, but undeniably few if any metaphors in our industry are as enduring.

The words we use to describe outsourcing on a macro level? Relationships. Partnerships. Extensions of ourselves.

Industry professionals lay this saying down in conversations ranging from how to select a CDMO to how to maintain long-term material supply agreements.

The length of “courtships” vary, although no engagement with a CDMO should start on bended knee, so to speak; it should be a meeting of mutual respect – and leverage.

However, while we say a key best practice is to solicit third-party advice from current and former customers in outsourcing, that is ill-advised with past paramours during romantic courtings. Although, there is the pre-nuptual (RFP process), and a “getting to know you” via visits with family (site visits) before meeting at the proverbial altar.

Both sides in an outsourcing relationship need to make promises, maybe not quite of “fidelity,” but of transparency, reliability, and sharing goals.

Our marriage analogy echoes the early excitement in a courtship, and also a hints of the uncertainty. Here, though, is where I think this breaks down: immediately after the vows are taken and the contracts signed.

When it comes to oursourcing development and manufacturing, there is no honeymoon period.

Instead, it’s a serious, expedited tech transfer setting off a flurry of activities.

Interestingly, though, despite best intentions in both cases, hiccups can occur at this stage: missing data, materials not passing specs, delays in accessing equipment trains, etc. 

We might then suggest successful onboarding, like marriage, certainly can require an initial patience and willingness to solve problems (rather than assign blame).

I’d be careful with the concept of compromise, though.

Science, technology, methods, analyses, processes and the like don’t take well to compromise. Timelines, maybe. But push a metaphor too far and you end up with high-faluting mush.

Trust is another word to most carefully analogize here.

Yes, trust should be foundational, and comes with assurances the other side is acting in good faith when challenges arise. But trust arrives with time, and is dependent on and material deliverables in outsourcing.

As marriage counselors know (or so the movies tell me), communication is the lifeblood of relationships and breeds trust, while intercepting misunderstandings from growing into mistrust – even resentment.

The marriage metaphor holds the most water as challenges (and phases) are successfully traversed, and the relationship between a CDMO and sponsor can settle into a comfortable routine. I believe this is the kernel of truth most meaningful here.

So let's say the trust has been established. Despite same caution above, there has also been compromise. Both sides speak up and listen carefully. This is a wholesome outsourcing partnership, like the best marriages.

They are never built on perfect unions, but on continual commitment to work through imperfection.

Do we consider the “divorce” when we intuit outsourcing is like a marriage?

In the business world, it often becomes a simple instrument of time. The CDMO a drug sponsor started out with and helped bring through early phase studies may not be the partner for commercial product.

It may not be a divorce, but separation is best when executed as mutually and amiably as possible.

And of course, there is the unfortunate breakdown in a relationship – marriage and outsourcing – where one side does not live up to its commitments, or the sides no longer see eye-to-eye, and a separation is negotiated.

And finally, I’ve left the best topic for last. The money. The financial transaction despite all the above odes to partnerships reigns central in business (and marriage) relationships.

How you “talk” about money can help advance or sink either a marriage or outsourcing relationship.

“Manufacturing is like baking a cake”

If anyone is underqualified for this one, it’s me. (Just ask my wife.)

This metaphor has to start with ingredients. For us, its raw and starting materials, APIs and excipients. For baking a cake, well, its for whatever you need to bake a cake.

But then this metaphor moves us to mixing and processing equipment and techniques, temperatures, addition rates and amounts, agitation speeds, the size and kind of bowls we work with … and of course the actual kitchen.

“Of course” because in outsourcing, there is no home cooking. You are in someone else’s kitchen – with your recipe. And you are hiring a chef de cuisine, his sous chef  and the rest of his staff.

Therefore, this metaphor most fundamentally talks to us about bringing all these elements together into a coherent singularity – a recipe for effectively baking a cake, or manufacturing a drug … with an external partner. I’m sure no one confuses this with, “It’s a piece of cake” …

So what is your favorite metaphor for drug development and manufacturing outsourcing, and working with CDMOs?