Pharma Contract Manufacturing Blog

This FAQ brings together the most pressing questions pharma and biotech leaders are asking about contract manufacturing today: from benchmarking CMO performance and managing quality agreements to scaling advanced therapies and ensuring supply chain resilience. Whether you’re a mid-sized biotech seeking your first CMO partner or a global pharma redefining your outsourcing strategy, these insights will help you forge stronger, smarter, and more future-ready partnerships in 2026 and beyond.

Ahead of this year's Pharma Contract Manufacturing 2022 event, we spoke exclusively to Ulrich Rümenapp, Head of Launch Preparation and Coordination at Bayer AG. Here he discusses how to successfully share intellectual property (IP) with Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs) and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs), top tips for overcoming complex product manufacturing challenges, and the benefits and opportunities of CMO and CDMO partnerships, to help you create and maintain positive partnerships with your CMOs and CDMOs for the development and production of your pharmaceutical products.

There are a number of challenging elements to consider when managing an effective communication with international partners; these include language, cultural and geographical components.

When managing a large network of suppliers, it is important to establish well balanced criteria in order to segment suppliers by their purpose. This allows for a more tactically organised supplier database with the top partners serving as candidates for strategic partnerships.