Everyone in the pharmaceutical industry value chain —equipment suppliers, small-molecule and biologic custom development and manufacturing service providers, companies providing support for clinical trials, and drug manufacturers—is working toward one overarching goal: delivery life-saving medicines to the patients who need them.
That can be a daunting task given the growing complexity of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the market itself. Both governments and insurance companies increasingly expect to see newly approved drugs demonstrate real value for patients. Demand growth has shifted to emerging markets where low-cost (and lower-margin) generics are preferred. Many key blockbuster drugs have fallen over the patent cliff, and many more, including several monoclonal antibodies, will be following them in the next five years. Newer therapies tend to target much smaller patient populations with targeted solutions. The percentage of pipeline products that are biologics also continues to increase at the expense of small-molecule drugs. Many of these drugs, such as antibody drug conjugates, are also highly potent and their preparation requires not only multiple complex synthetic technologies, but special facilities and equipment and advanced analytical instrumentation and techniques.
The pharmaceutical industry is grappling with these numerous issues while simultaneously striving to develop and manufacture safe, effective treatments. A quick review of the most successful companies reveals that these firms have at least one thing in common—the willingness to invest in strategic partnerships with others in the supply chain.
In this supplement, you will find several examples of how companies providing vastly different products and services all benefit from long-term relationships with their customers:
- As a business unit of GlaxoSmithKline, GSK Biopharmaceuticals has the proven history, facilities, systems, people, and corporate support needed to provide its strategic partners with contract manufacturing services with market leading quality, cost, and time efficiency.
- As a custom manufacturer of small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients, Ash Stevens works strategically with its partners, providing expertise in highly potent manufacturing and the accelerated development of Fast Track drugs.
- Unither Pharmaceuticals North America, regional operations of Unither Pharmaceuticals global specialty single-dose drug delivery packaging expert and finished dosage CMO, brings a patient-centric focus to premeasured, easy-to-use stick-pack and BFS (Blow-Fill-Seal) technology.
- Merge eClinical doesn’t just provide cloud-based clinical trial management systems. The company views its customers as strategic partners and invests in building trust and communications in order to help them achieve success and continually improve its software solutions.
- Surplus equipment dealer Federal Equipment helps its strategic partners maximize their resource recovery efforts, rapidly and cost-effectively expand capacity, and immediately replace damaged equipment to prevent production shutdowns.
These companies are experts in their fields. All are dedicated to helping drug manufacturers get their products into the hands of patients safely, rapidly, and cost-effectively. Strategic partnerships are crucial to their success. I think you will find their different perspectives very interesting.