Something Seems to Be Missing

April 10, 2024 by Jeff Briganti

A need to focus on improvement and efficiency

When it comes to industry gatherings, I had never attended DCAT Week. Hosted by the Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association, or DCAT, it's held every March in New York City and welcomes several thousand “innovator and generic drug manufacturers and suppliers of ingredients, development and manufacturing services, and related technologies,” as the event website puts it.

The primary focus of this gathering is to facilitate one-on-one conversations between partners up and down the value chain. I was part of many great conversations with existing clients, potential new clients, and other potential business partners. As a bonus, I was also happy to see some old friends and colleagues.

Big investments. Anything else?
My biggest takeaway, however, came during the opening session, the DCAT Member Company Announcement Forum. In this forum, 20 different companies gave presentations showcasing their on-going investments, almost exclusively covering facility expansion. Company after company described capacity and capability expansion via new buildings, new campuses, geographic expansion, renovation, or moving/combining capabilities into a single location.

I heard about investments from tens of millions of dollars (on the low end), up to a $1.5 billion investment across four sites. The presentations were great. It was all exciting information. However, what really stood out to me was what wasn’t presented.

All well and good, but...
Where was the discussion of efficiency gains? Why no discussions on how to make it easier for clients and providers to work with each other? Where was the discussion on addressing long lead times? How about cost savings? New buildings and added capacity are impressive, but are they the solution?

This stood out to me, in part, because of the amazing work at sustained process improvement my colleagues at Aldevron have done since the company was acquired by Danaher. For example, in 2023 alone, turnaround times on GMP manufacturing projects were shortened by ~40%, on average. We have a goal to shorten it by an additional 25% in 2024. Also, we’ve improved on-boarding new GMP manufacturing projects, getting projects into the queue much faster and improving the overall client experience.

Yes, as a growing company looking towards the future, Aldevron also has a facility growth roadmap, just like those companies making their announcements at DCAT Week. We will have exciting expansion announcements when appropriate. But foremost, we are committed to continuously improving the efficiency of our existing facilities and improving the client experience, and my colleagues and I look forward to sharing more details on that ongoing progress toward delivering quality products with world-class service.

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