OSP caught up with them before the event, which is taking place in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, between May 7-9.
How does your company stay ahead of industry trends and developments in the pharmaceutical sector?
Quotient Sciences is built on our three foundational pillars of science, agility, and culture. We’ve always maintained that a richness of drug development expertise and an innovative approach to solution design are the keys to delivering success for our company and our customers. We enter every customer discussion with a hunger for data, never assuming to pre-conceive which technology or approach might present the best solution but with a passion to discover the best way forwards. The more we learn from our in-house research, from technology providers and from our network of collaborators, the better partners we can be for our customers. We work hard to maintain our position as a thought leader within the industry, and last year was a record year as far as industry presentations and panel discussions. We expect to keep that momentum going in 2024.
Can you tell us about any recent partnerships or collaborations your company has formed to enhance its offerings?
We collaborate with a small number of industry partners to bring additional value to our customer base. In crafting these relationships, the first question we always ask is, “what new, different or better solution does this bring to the customer?” For example, in 2024, we continue to partner with Charles River Laboratories to offer a collaboration that leverages the world-leading expertise of both companies to bring acceleration in the candidate selection-to-IND space. Combined, Charles River and Quotient Sciences bring more than a century of experience and our collaboration reduces this to practice for our customers’ programs.
What challenges is your company currently facing in the pharmaceutical market, and how are you addressing them?
As we continue to see the industry evolve “post-COVID”, 2023 continued to be a difficult year, when it came to rising inflation impacting biotech funding and M&A. CDMOs/CROs such as Quotient Sciences, continued to thrive by providing innovative solutions, a deep understanding of science, and strategic partnership to clients. This is especially true when it comes to partnerships with small and emerging biopharma companies that continue to be responsible for more of the molecules making their way to market, as demonstrated by record FDA approvals in 2023. We remain positive for 2024 as we begin to see early signs of a return to increasing biotech industry funding to support the growing number of new molecules in the development pipelines.
Can you discuss any plans for expansion or market growth that your company has in the pipeline?
The expansion of our flagship Translational Pharmaceutics platform for drug development remains a key objective, and we’re looking at enhancements to how we deliver this service within the US. Applying this ground-breaking approach under US regulations allows us to complement capabilities already offered from our Nottingham, UK facility and gives US-based clients greater flexibility to either work locally with the FDA or with the MHRA in the UK to realize the benefits it delivers for their program. Additionally, we are evaluating opportunities in new geographies and new modalities to extend the reach and impact we’re able to deliver.
We’re also excited to further our digital transformation. Given our unique position that spans chemistry, pharmaceutical, and clinical capabilities, we believe generative AI has the potential to deliver a truly transformational impact for customers and ultimately patients.
What sets your company apart from competitors in the pharmaceutical industry, and what value do you offer to your customers?
Our Translational Pharmaceutics platform disrupts conventional drug development processes to deliver un-paralleled time- and cost efficiencies. For small molecules and synthetic peptides, traditionally, a combination of CDMOs and CROs is required, with handovers at different points over the course of a drug program. These introduce product waste and knowledge leakage, and they absorb time and money.
Instead, Translational Pharmaceutics integrates formulation development, on-demand and adaptive GMP manufacturing, healthy volunteer clinical testing, and data analysis all within a single organization and under a single project manager. This gives customers unrivaled flexibility to develop, manufacture, and optimize formulation compositions within a study. Amongst several other advantages, drug substance consumption may also be reduced by up to 85%.
Since its inception in 2008, our Translational Pharmaceutics platform has been what has set us apart from all other service providers in our sector and we’re excited to develop ever more innovative applications.