Strategic Bioanalytical Partnerships for the Win-Win-Win

For bioanalytical CROs, it is of critical importance to build an internal team capable of meeting their pharmaceutical and biotech customers’ drug development goals. However, many overlook the benefits of strategically aligning with external partners – those organizations that can add value to the CRO’s offerings, supplementing their solutions and services to make them more comprehensive and attractive to customers. The right relationship creates a win-win-win: for the CRO, for their partner, and most importantly, for the customers they both serve.

For BioAgilytix, our partnership with ATCC, the leader in the manufacture, characterization, preservation, storage and distribution of biological materials, has proven to be a winning formula. With two expert teams working to provide a single suite of end-to-end cell-based assay development services, we are able to bring together our complementary resources and expertise to better support our customers’ cell-based assay needs.

The Building Blocks of a Successful Partnership
When evaluating potential partners, it is important for a CRO to consider a few main factors. First, does the partnering organization have complimentary services that will make it easier and/or more appealing for customers to work with you, without competing with your own offerings? Customers are looking to streamline drug development processes however they can to save time and costs, and tend to prefer the ‘one-stop-shop’ providers that can deliver services in a comprehensive fashion. This helps maintain project continuity, minimize issues of handoffs between service providers, and saves the customer needing to research, vet, and engage a multitude of providers.

Through the BioAgilytix/ATCC partnership, our customers have access to ATCC’s research-focused services for developing, authenticating, banking, and provisioning cells, and BioAgilytix’s robust expertise developing new and custom cell-based assays. Looking at the resources and services we individually provide, it is clear they are fully complimentary and without crossover, and collectively enable us to support the full range of our customers’ cell-based assay development needs.

But it’s not just about having the right type of services; CROs must also understand how their potential partner actually delivers them. Can they uphold the same levels of quality, timeliness, and transparency that your customers have come to expect from your organization? Customers will see the partners you’ve aligned with as an extension of your own company. It is imperative they deliver to your same quality standards or the risk can be to your own reputation.

For BioAgilytix, premium service quality and transparent communications are core to our brand. It was essential we work with a partner that shares these similar commitments. ATCC is one of the most respected global biological materials resource and standards organizations in the world, with a successful track record dating back to 1925. They are the go-to source for accessing, developing, characterizing, and storing cell lines, and their team is as equally meticulous as ours in supporting customers with the best science and service possible.

Last but not least, CROs must ensure that the partner’s organizational culture aligns with their own. Your teams will be working closely together and therefore synergy between internal staff should not be overlooked. We knew from the start of our partnership with ATCC back in 2016 that the relationship would be positive, but it has nonetheless been exciting to see the smooth processes and successful results we’ve been able to deliver to customers in our joint projects since. BioAgilytix recently expanded our cell-based assay facilities even further, and will continue to work with ATCC to comprehensively serve the cell-based assay development needs of sponsors worldwide.

Meet BioAgilytix and ATCC at the 2018 Trends In Cell-based Assays Forum
ATCC and BioAgilytix are pleased to announce the first “Trends in Cell-Based Assays” forum to bring together individuals and organizations in the biotech community to discuss the latest developments in this critical area of drug discovery and development.

The 2018 forum, to be held April 3, 2018 at the Le Méridien Hotel in Cambridge, MA, will cover topics such as the recent advances in the development of in vitro cell models, as well as innovative technologies in antibody-drug conjugate assay development, and the challenges in analytical method transfer in pharmaceuticals.