The Importance Of Strategic Alliance Partners In Biopharmaceuticals

By Maria Barajas

Biotherapeutics are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the pharmaceutical industry. Between 2011 and 2016, revenue from biologics increased 70 percent to $232 billion.  Industry analysts predict that number will continue to grow as more biologics and biosimilars enter the market and pharmaceutical companies across the globe build out their biotherapeutics pipelines. This rapid growth has sparked both challenges and opportunities for biopharmaceutical companies and their contract manufacturing partners as they seek to pair these novel therapies with innovative drug delivery systems.

Challenges of Strategic Alliances:

Many injectable biologics and biosimilars are coming onto the market as combination products – drug products paired with delivery devices – making it critical for pharmaceutical companies to pay close attention to the design, function and efficacy of integrated delivery systems. As such, biopharmaceutical companies are relying on drug delivery technology partners to provide containment, delivery and contract manufacturing expertise so that they can focus on developing these important drugs.

Strong collaboration between biopharmaceutical companies and their delivery device developer/manufacturer partners is key to delivering innovative, patient-centric delivery systems. Yet, these collaborations can be difficult to execute successfully. Any time multiple teams come together to work on a project there are bound to be challenges. These challenges are often compounded when the teams come from separate companies, each with their own culture, hierarchies and ways of communicating.