Earlier this month the Sweden-based CMO announced it had been contracted to supply PledPharma with material for Phase IIb clinical trials of a new drug designed to prevent chemotherapy side-effects.
The deal is not the first time the two companies have worked together. Last year Recipharm helped PledPharma restart a trial of mangafodipir, its candidate heart attack treatment, after the original CMO abandoned the supply contract.
Outsourcing-pharma.com wanted to know more about Recipharm’s relationship with fellow Sweden-based PledPharma and just what difficulties a CMO faces when picking up a contract begun by another organisation.
A spokesman told us that: “It is always challenging to get into a project where a collaboration has started with a another supplier. Often all information is not captured in written reports. When you get into a project from the start trust develops gradually in a natural way.
“However, when responsibility is transferred you often get rapidly into a very intense phase without the parties having enough time to get to know each other and develop a mutual understanding.”
Recipharm went on to explain that taking on such work usually involves adapting manufacturing processes adding that: “Recipharm has a very experienced work force that are very stimulated by technical challenges. Hence introducing new modifications to our manufacturing technology is usually relatively straight forward as in this case.”
Commercial contracts
We wondered – given the level of trust Recipharm has developed with PledPharma over the course of the two projects – whether the CMO has already won the commercial production deals.
The spokesman told us that: “I cannot comment on this. We always strive to provide excellent services as we are convinced that that this is the basis for profitable long term relationships with customers.
“We want our customers to stay with us for the entire development process and into commercial manufacture and in most cases they like to stick with us.”