Life Science Leader Magazine Supplements

CMO 2015

The vision of Life Science Leader is to help facilitate connections and foster collaborations in pharma and med device development to get more life-saving and life-improving therapies to market in an efficient manner. Connect, Collaborate, Contribute

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LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM THE CMO LEADERSHIP AWARDS 2015 49 same way the innovating company might. The innovator will generally know (better than the partner) what other potential uses there are for a product. If that innovating company elects to get into an outlicensing arrangement, it will be very difficult to get the drug back or have much of a say in the entire development process. TRANSITIONING OUT OF A PARTNERING HORROR STORY Try as you might, not all partnering agree- ments will go as planned. Even if you spent a considerable amount of time and effort selecting the right partner, some partner- ships are just not meant to be. The session closed with the panelists discussing a deal that did not go as planned. After all, even if a drug has potential, it may simply end up not being a fit for the company you part- nered with. Oftentimes when a deal goes astray, it can be the result of a shift in the priorities of the pharma company. If the science doesn't work out or takes a lot longer than expected, the issue of prioritization will arise. The smaller innovator company can easily find itself moved from a large position in the pharma organization to a secondary posi- tion. That type of a move also can result from something as simple as a change in management or the company reshuffling its resources. Those changes can happen overnight, and when they do, the project becomes a nightmare, and getting out can be very difficult. If that happens, you have to focus on a smooth transition out of the agreement. The last thing you want is for a severing of the partnership to affect you negatively and jeopardize your chances of striking a new partnership with a different company. Having something in the legal agreement that addresses ownership of the data and the support you will receive during the transition period will make the process go easier. When drawing up the initial agreements, it is easy to make the mistake of looking at it only from the perspective of everything working out as planned. To play it safe, step back and look at the agree- ments from the perspective of nothing going as originally planned. That will help you identify areas of weakness and risk in the documents. "Sometimes there is a silver lining there," noted one panelist in closing. "This may be a shiny new car that you invested money into, and which has value, and which has now been given back to you. You now have the ability to do something else with it. With the right partner, you can still bring the technology back and make it a success. The breakdown in one partnership may simply be the start of something new." L The Perfect Balance Between Timing, Quality and Value Accelerate your program from DNA to Commercialization United States +1 425 485 1900 Europe +45 7020 9470 www.cmcbiologics.com

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