PharmaSource Podcast

“CMC was not usually a core part of the planning — it was more of an afterthought. Now that funding has tightened, that is changing.”
Siddhartha Jain, President of Shoolin Management Company, has spent two decades in biologics CMC across Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, and other major companies, contributing to the development and manufacturing of over 10 clinical and commercial molecules.
In this episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Sid shares why raw material variability remains one of the industry’s most underestimated risks, what separates a technically proficient CDMO from one that is merely experienced, and why digital CMC transformation fails when it ignores people and process.
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At CDMO Live Europe 2025, a panel of procurement and commercial leaders argued that the most consequential CDMO negotiations happen after the contract is signed, covering risk-sharing structures, governance discipline, and the conditions under which trust compounds or collapses.
The session was chaired by Matthew Holt, Co-Founder of Collaborative Sourcing, with panelists Salomon Engels, Head of External Manufacturing at Par Health; Mark Goemans, Chief Commercial Officer at Bora Biologics; and Thomas Thunnissen, Director of Procurement and Partnerships at Leyden Labs. The discussion moved through four stages of the partnership life cycle: initial negotiation, contract construction, governance, and risk-sharing.
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Gil Roth, President of the Pharma & Biopharma Outsourcing Association (PBOA), walked CDMO Live Europe delegates through the full matrix of US policy pressures bearing on contract manufacturers, from Section 232 tariffs and most favored nation pricing to FDA workforce collapse and a stalled BioSecure Act.
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At CDMO Live Europe 2026 Maik Talarczyk Head PMO External Supplier Operations, Sandoz, laid out the company’s three-year supplier network consolidation program, detailing a six-step make-vs-buy decision framework that reduced network complexity by 34% against its 2023 baseline.
Maik Talarczyk opened with a warning. “The fan is always on – and the shit is always flying.”
Sandoz entered 2024 managing approximately 500 finished dose form (FDF) suppliers — a network Talarczyk describes as fragmented and expensive to run. The initial diagnosis was that 20% of suppliers accounted for 80% of sales. But the structural problem ran deeper: commercial and technical operations weren’t talking to each other. Country organizations understood top-line sales and margin. They did not see what was happening in technical operations.
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"We saw what you guys built and made a decision pretty quickly: we didn't want to compete with that. We wanted to be part of it." Jon Howland, CEO, Life Science Connect
Today we are announcing that PharmaSource, CDMO Live and External Manufacturing Leaders will be joining forces with Life Science Connect to create a new events divison.
In this special episode, Luke Bilton sits down with Life Science Connect CEO Jon Howland to talk about what's been going on behind the scenes, and what this new chapter means to biopharma outsourcing media and events.
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