The Significance Of Recognizing Excellence
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
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Welcome to Life Science Leader’s 3rd annual CMO Leadership Awards special supplement — recognizing excellence in pharmaceutical and biologic contract manufacturing. Unlike many other industry awards (e.g. Emmys, Oscars, Grammys), The CMO Leadership Awards are not a popularity contest nor are they determined by our writers and editors via a secret ballot (e.g. Motor Trend Car of the Year).
The CMO Leadership Awards were conceived as a means to better serve our readers — pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical executives who indicated a high level of confusion regarding CMO selection approaches. Their feedback indicated a strong desire for information on what their peers think of a wide range of CMOs, to help them with the vetting and selection process. I am frequently asked how the CMO Leadership Awards are determined, so let me explain the process.
The awards are decided based on market research from Nice Insight in a manner similar to that of J.D. Power and Associates. Nice Insight annually surveys approximately 40,000 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical executives who are involved in the selection of outsourced services. This year’s survey had more than 10,000 responses — a response rate of greater than 25 percent. Depending upon the survey, response rates can vary dramatically. An important incentive for respondents to participate is knowing that their opinions will be heard and action will be taken based on their feedback. This is why collecting responses, compiling and analyzing data to identify awareness and perception scores for CMOs serving the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry, and then “locking it up in a vault” simply won’t do. Life science leaders want to know customer perception scores for CMOs. This year’s winners rank in the top 20 percent in the following five categories — quality, reliability, innovation, productivity, and regulatory. CMO Leadership Award recipients can be recognized as being winners in one or more categories. Being a winner in one category is quite an accomplishment; winning in multiple categories is truly outstanding. This year, 8 companies were recognized as being in the top 20 percent in 4 different categories. Only 5 companies (Baxter, GSK, Norwich, Solvias, and Therapure) were recognized as being in the top 20 percent in all five categories. This is a truly remarkable achievement when you consider the award recipient pool is selected from over 100 CMOs worldwide. Congratulations to all of the 2013 CMO Leadership Award winners. Please mark your calendars for March 12, 2014, since that is the date when we will recognize all the winners at our annual CMO Leadership Awards ceremony in New York City.