In this presentation, Alexandria Cogdill, Head of Strategic Initiatives, Global Business Development, at Daiichi Sankyo outlines the benefits of leveraging external innovation to overcome challenges in biologics manufacturing. Cogdill’s talk aimed to outline how partnerships with external innovators can address complex challenges in biologics manufacturing. Furthermore, she discussed how integrating cutting-edge technologies from external sources can streamline manufacturing and lower cost of goods sold (COGS).
Understand Your Market
When looking to external partners in biologics manufacturing innovation, it is vital that to first understand your market. The ADC market is already large and complex, and it will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. Innovation of individual manufacturing steps comes from understanding the force factors that drive possible innovation across a specific asset.
Shared Challenges Mean Better Partnerships
Challenges that affect biologics companies broadly are often solved by up-and-coming startups. Therefore, shared manufacturing processes in pharmaceuticals allow a company to identify those common challenges, which can then be met by the external market. Herein, Cogdill stressed the importance of paying attention to the external market and where innovation may be solving prevalent problems.
Not All Innovations are Created Equally
When innovating manufacturing steps, evaluating technical complexity and research integration at the same time is extremely important. Cogdill said that costly, time-consuming, and difficult projects are not suited to be the first integration a company chases. Instead, integrating easier to handle integrations to reduce COGS are the best first win. From there, a company can continue to improve their processes, tackling harder integrations later.
Survey Your External Market from Both Sides
Companies should always survey the external market from both a scientific and a business development lens to ensure their partners can see the project through. Therefore, Cogdill recommended that when presenting to a pharma company, recognising that they consider both of these sides.
Innovating in a Small Manufacturing Step is a Win
Although, Cogdill recommends taking the smallest leaps first, the successful implementation of these innovations should still be seen as big wins. When manufacturing at a global scale, even small COGS reductions can lead to billions of dollars saved. So Cogdill said to celebrate small improvements and move on to the next step.
Build, Buy, and Partner
Finally, Cogdill added that she was of the opinion that it was best not to undertake complex projects alone. External innovation plays a crucial role in advancing all aspects of internal development, from scientific to R&D and manufacturing. She said that organisations only stand to benefit from bringing in fresh ideas, people, expertise, and technologies from the outside.