Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021 - 16

Cover Story
" This is why we do clinical development and drug development, "
Onyebuchi explained. " When things don't work, it's
important to reflect and take that time to understand why it
didn't work. [Otherwise] we may lose the important lesson
through this experience. Even when we do get things right,
we know there's always room to do it better, a way to be more
efficient, a way to deliver our therapies faster to the patients.
So for us it's really not on to the next priority-at least not
just yet. We are taking some time to reflect and thoroughly
understand how things went: where did we get things right,
and where could we have done things a little differently? It's
ultimately from understanding those lessons and sharing
those best practices with one another that we become better
drug developers. "
One of the lessons learned has been that companies can ally
with even their greatest rivals to make things happen. In this
case, Takeda partnered with CSL Behring, perhaps its largest
competitor in the plasma space, on the immunoglobulin
project. And Onyebuchi cites it as another example of the
spirit of COVID collaboration noted by Twait and others.
" As someone who has been in this industry for a while, I
really hope that we are able to sustain that collaboration in
alliances moving forward, and we don't go back to alliances as
usual, where we remain competitors and we never quite come
together and collaborate as we did in the pandemic environment, "
she said. " As we slowly transition into a new normal,
it will be important for each individual company to keep up
that momentum and maintain that same sense of urgency.
Because we've learned that through collaborating, you can do
it faster. I think in the future, each individual company needs
to make a commitment that we're going continue to leverage
the efficiencies that we gained through this collaboration with
companies we would typically compete with. "
" We've learned that through
collaborating, you can do it faster. "
" We Know Patients Are Waiting "
Even the pandemic speed, in Onyebuchi's view, could-and
should-be harnessed once more going forward.
" I think it would be incumbent on us to try our best to continue
to sustain the speed, " she said. " Because we know patients are
waiting. The work that we do, we don't do it in isolation. It's
not just with companies through alliances, but also through
other partnerships, with regulatory authorities for example,
hospitals, and other institutions that treat patients.
" So it's my hope that as an industry we continue to drive at an
accelerated pace, maintaining that same sense of urgency, and
that our development partners, like the regulators and other
entities, [are also] able to do their important work at a similar
pace. Because I think doing that overall helps us to have faster
development programs no matter what company you work
for, and ultimately get therapies that are needed to patients a
lot faster. "
A Supercharged Industry
Onyebuchi was alluding to an increasingly complex biopharmaceutical
ecosystem-comprising big pharma companies,
biotechs, academic institutions, CROs, CMOs, and more-
that has now been irrevocably altered by the pandemic.
The hard work and nearly endless days so many people put
in transformed both biopharma's reputation and in many
respects its ways of doing things.
Another industry leader who has witnessed this transformation
firsthand is Eric Skjeveland, CSAP, global leader
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Strategic Alliance QUARTERLY | Q3 2021
Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021
