Can Your CDMO Relationships Survive Another "Virtual" Year?

By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma

“I spent five years in Kalamazoo, right out of college, working for Upjohn, now Pfizer of course, because it was Pfizer-ed, and I do use that as a verb. So, it’s suddenly been 25 years in various parts of the industry dealing with outsourcing, but, then again, I have a child who’s turning 20 in a week and a half. So there’s that.”

And that’s Lori Hoffman. A unique communicator who hasn’t slowed a syllable since we first met at a CDMO circa 2005. Since then, she’s worked at a second CDMO, but mostly her career has been on the other side of the outsourcing equation, managing relationships with external development and manufacturing partners. In July, she joined Slayback Pharma as Head of alliance management. Slayback is a privately held, specialty pharma based in Princeton, NJ, with formulation development operations in Hyderabad, India. Her role covers working with some 20 external partners manufacturing a large portfolio of products. So it makes perfect sense that when I ask her how the current year of pandemic pandemonium has changed the outsourcing industry — and might continue into our future — she focuses on communication.