Discovery Research From The Editor

  1. Lilly's CEO Building On The Trump Agenda 5/12/2025

    “We hadn’t built a new site in the U.S. in more than 40 years until the first set of Trump tax cuts, so we need to see those either extended or improved to support this,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks recently said, announcing — in Washington, DC — plans to invest $27 billion to build four new manufacturing plants in the U.S.

  2. Investors Create A U.S. Biotech With GLP-1 Assets From China 5/7/2025

    U.S.-based Kailera Therapeutics formation is a revelatory story highlighting the prowess of today’s investor class. All four of its clinical candidates are GLP-1-based therapies. All were in-licensed from China. Kailera's CTO Doug Bakan fills us in on how it came together, and what's next.

  3. Tariffs Won't Stop Drug-Candidate Licensing From China Biotechs 4/23/2025

    According to Global Data, the total deal value of U.S. licensing of innovator drug candidates from Chinese biopharma companies has surged since 2020. This is an area way upstream of the current tariff focus on manufacturing. But how this R&D trend and those tariffs play out will impact your U.S.-based CDMOs.

  4. What If The Trump Tariff Strategy Works? 4/8/2025

    Doom and gloom in the drug development and manufacturing supply chain.  Predictions of disruptions and displacements. The Trump tariff ploy will fail, and costs/prices will skyrocket. But have you considered this “risk”? The tariff tantrum lowers national export/import duties for the entire globe.

  5. Pain And Pleasure In Project Management Of CDMOs 3/17/2025

    Tony Sampognaro of Stoke Therapeutics, says, “We're having to rearrange and bolster the constellation of CDMOs we're working with." The nice thing is, Stoke has a comprehensive extended enterprise model. Nonetheless, an all-outsourced model “can add hidden complexity." Here's how to manage that.

  6. 'Fractional Hiring' At Your CDMO. Okay With You? 3/14/2025

    We need a flexible hiring marketplace – a new ecosystem – to generate increased awareness by professionals and students of positions in the biopharma industry. “It’s no longer about simply posting full-time jobs,” says Chris Frew, Founder/CEO of BioBuzz Networks. But is "fractional hiring" the answer?

  7. Smart Scale-Up: Expanding Viral Vectors With Microcarrier Bead Technology 3/12/2025

    Scale up your manufacturing of adherent cell cultures used for viral vector-based treatments with the novel technologies needed to facilitate safe, rapid production.

  8. Talent Logistics Turns Biotech Winter To Hiring Spring 3/3/2025

    After our "Biotech Winter" – a period starting circa 2021 with tens of thousands of layoffs and stagnating investment — is it springtime for biotech? Chris Frew, Founder/CEO of BioBuzz Networks, says yes. “We have demonstrably entered a turning point in biotech hiring.”

  9. CDMOs Bet Big On Asia Expansion. Can Trump Reverse The Tide? 2/20/2025

    Facility investments by CDMOs continue to be magnetized to Asia. Recent examples abound. Chief Editor Louis Garguilo details some of those, and discusses whether, for example, a President Trump-intensified focus on increasing manufacturing in the U.S. can change this. Will your outsourcing in 2025 change direction? The answer may surprise you.

  10. Stop Hiring Now! Stay Virtual 2/17/2025

    Robert Discordia, Co-Founder, President and CEO, EQUULUS Therapeutics, knows that to advance early-stage development assets most economically, biotechs should (a) stay within their virtual model, and (b) base that outsourcing strategy on initial business objectives. Here are his dos and don'ts.