Where International Pharma Deals Get Done

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

By Rob Wright

This was my first foray to CPhI Worldwide, which was held at Feria de Madrid (IFEMA), Spain, October 9 – 11. Many attendees related to me that this particular event is where deals get done. Now if you have never attended this event, and start figuring out the cost of travel, you might experience sticker shock, and decide the cost of attending to be too expensive. This would be a costly mistake. For me, the experience of meeting so many major players in the market at this UBM hosted tradeshow was like that of the Master Card commercial slogan – priceless.

A Sampling Of International Executives I Met At CPhI
When I sat down with Xander Wessels, CEO for DSM, he told me he was pleased to see Life Science Leader magazine attending CPhI. According to Wessels, it demonstrated that we were serious about gaining a thorough understanding of the business needs and challenges our international readers and advertisers face in the global world of pharmaceuticals and biopharm. We have attended many conferences and trade shows, and I have personally met many executives over the course of an event. At CPhI however, I had the opportunity to meet and have significant dialogue with more CEOs and company presidents in 24 hours than at any other previous venue. In addition to gaining industry insight from Xander Wessels, I also met with Mike Kosko, CEO of Pfizer Centre Source (PCS), who got me up to speed on Pfizer’s “Own It” corporate cultural initiative – which you can learn more about here. Kosko describes it as a culture of personal accountability. It seems to be working, considering that PCS is a four-category 2012 CMO Leadership Award winner. In addition, I met with Gilles Cottier, president SAFC — another four-category 2012 CMO Leadership Award winner. Cottier explained to me how he attributes SAFC’s recent success to the implementation and execution of its customer intimacy initiative. I also had the opportunity to speak with Terry Novak, president of Norwich Pharmaceuticals, one of only four companies (others being Almac, Cook Pharmica & Therapure Biopharma) to be recognized as a five-category 2012 CMO Leadership award winner. Novak shared with me how his company is having success in developing strategic partnerships with small and midsize pharmaceutical companies. According to Novak, the smaller companies truly understand the concept of strategic partnering. This is a sentiment echoed by Mark Griffiths, CEO CARBOGEN AMCIS. When I asked Griffiths to share his views as to some of the problems the pharmaceutical industry is presently facing, he said, “Close the door.” Griffiths proceeded to describe Big Pharma’s decision-making process for the purchase of APIs as being “psychotic,” relaying to me the notion that if you want a strategic partnership, the conversation shouldn’t begin with the question, “How much?”

Want To Accelerate Building International Strategic Partnerships?
Trust is the foundation of lasting strategic partnerships. But the building of trust, especially in international business, takes time to build. For example, though Life Science Leader had never attended UBM’s CphI Worldwide, we have successfully collaborated over the years on a number of other events. Just prior to leaving for the tradeshow, the organizers asked if I could help moderate the inaugural Global Leadership Series, sponsored by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines & Health Products (CCCMHPIE). The fact that I had never moderated a session for UBM previously, and was doing so at their largest event, and on short notice, demonstrated a tremendous degree of trust, built over time. I am thankful that I was able to help. For not only do I believe our two organizations further solidified our strategic partnership, but during the event I had the opportunity to meet Bin Cui, Secretary General for CCCMHPIE, and have begun the process of building a relationship with his organization. Hopefully, it will eventually lead to a strategic partnership — one as strong as the one we have with UBM. But it will take time. My recommendation is, if you want to shorten the time it takes to build trust when developing international strategic partnerships, you need to see, and be seen doing business at international venues, and CPhI Worldwide is a good place to start.