Samsung Biologics on Securing Supply Networks in the Wake of COVID-19

While research and development groups often prioritise factors such as creativity and thinking outside the box when it comes to choosing supply partners, there is often a lot more to be said for longevity and experience. It’s all very well having lots of superficially good ideas, but many procurement departments want to know those ideas have been stress tested in the real world.

Speaking at a recent session, Samsung Biologics’ Head of Alliance Management, Kevin Sharp, spoke at length on how securing supplier networks in its contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) is the key to its contractual planning strategy. Samsung places the ability for a supplier to ensure the long-term availability of the required capacity necessary to keep up the commercial volume at the highest priority when negotiating new supplier arrangements.

“Within a very short period we saw that capacity dry up – whether it was internal capacity within the pharmaceutical company space or the CDMO industry available capacity and it was really agnostic to scale,” said Sharp. “Therefore, having flexibility from your CDMO to adjust to growing demand will be essential to maintaining commercial volumes. So, ensuring the long-term availability of required capacity at the CDMO when negotiating a commercial supply agreement is critical.”