A new partnership is exciting and disruptive.
We start out in the honeymoon period” The science is promising, teams get to know each other as they kick off their activities, and, depending on the size of the deal, there will be “buzz”.
In today’s biopharma ecosystem, strategic alliances are often necessary to bring therapeutics to registration quickly and efficiently, and across territories. Industry data shows a continued shift toward externally sourced innovation. Large pharma increasingly depends on external sources to sustain its pipeline, such as:
● Academic research
● Early-stage biotech innovation
● AI-enabled discovery platforms
● Cross-industry collaborations
● Global commercialization partnerships
Well managed strategic alliances allow companies to do what they could not do on their own:
● De-risk development by accessing expertise and sharing costs
● Accelerate time to market
● Enter new therapeutic areas
● Access new geographies
● Access capabilities and scale (e.g. for commercialization)
Yet partnerships bring opportunity costs with them as well. Partnerships may increase organization complexity, creating distractions and diverting internal resources to joint projects that teams may not be explicitly rewarded for in their goals and objectives, for example:
● Participating in shared governance, including having to make joint decisions
● Applying resources to partnership milestone
● Increased financial reporting and cost allocation complexity
● Joint IP management and prosecution
Without an effective and efficient structure, this complexity generates organizational friction, inefficiency, missed timelines and frustration. Alliance management provides teams with the guidance and facilitated governance that they need to participate effectively in partnerships.
Strategic alignment may not sustain itself without proactive management
At signing, both companies may be aligned. But two years later, priorities may have shifted due to leadership changes, e.g. due to a new portfolio strategy, new financial pressures, or an acquisition.
Rather than deal with “zombie” partnerships, alliance managers are uniquely positioned to assess the alignment of corporate strategy with partnership goals and requirements. This will allow the organization to proactively address aspects of a partnership that may need to evolve. Maybe a change in steering committee membership is needed, or the winding down of joint activities that no longer serve aligned partnership goals. There are instances when the best path forward is to terminate on amicable terms, rather than allow the relationship to degrade.
The resourcing reality for biotech companies: fractional alliance management is a viable option
Most biotech executives understand the value of alliance management, but their portfolio and budgets allow for a full time hire. The absence of alliance management increases the overall risk of partnership failure due to inadequate oversight of joint programs and joint governance, milestone disputes caused by misaligned expectations and poor documentation of decisions and diligence.
This is precisely where LBBAL Alianza steps in. If you do not have the internal capacity to build a dedicated alliance management function, we provide scalable support tailored to your needs.
You may require:
● Governance meeting facilitation
● Milestone and notice tracking
● Strategic portfolio review
● Co-development launch support
● Technology transfer oversight
● Interim alliance management
● Contract amendment guidance
● Executive-level dispute assessment
We integrate at the level your organization needs — hourly advisory, custom project support, or ongoing alliance management services.
