Create The Correct Checklist To Land The Best CDMO

By Stephanie Gaulding, managing director, Pharmatech Associates

Outsourcing strategy plays a lead role in a company’s business strategy. Transparency and leadership must factor into this special partnership — the softer side of the business – and communication is mission critical. When considering outsourcing strategies, develop the right kind of checklist that will help you create frameworks, master service agreements, and quality agreements for best oversight of your supplier.

Many of us are familiar with the standard checklists that focus on assessing a potential partner’s financial, technical, or compliance aspects. While these aspects are important to evaluate during our selection process, there is often a missing component – cultural fit. Drug sponsors must be able to articulate their own cultural hallmarks and define the desired outcomes of the relationship. CDMOs in turn should be able to articulate similar attributes about a potential customer.

In this article, we discuss CDMO assessment in this context and show how to construct an agreement between partners that favors fluid communication and alignment of business objectives — crucial for a fruitful sponsor-CDMO relationship to diminish overall risk for both.