"Multi-million pound deals are being struck by sponsors and CROs with a little bit of hope and naivety"

Meeting the challenges of the sponsor/CRO partnership with John Faulkes, CEO of PPMLD

“Sponsors want now what they always have; they want the CRO to deliver what they say they will. But despite many years of experience and loads of money in the system, the intense conversation that goes on tells us that this doesn’t always happen.”

For John Faulkes, consultant and CEO of PPMLD, it is clear there are issues with most of the partnerships between sponsors and CROs at the moment. Despite the fact pharma companies have “tried all sorts of ways to make this work”, targets aren’t being met and budgets are being stretched.

Watch the full interview above

One of the big debates over how to combat these issues is around long term strategic partnerships versus tactical outsourcing. However, for Faulkes, “that’s the wrong question; there are other things that are more fundamental that would make more of an impact”.

One such example is for sponsors and CROs to agree on more realistic propositions at the start of the partnership: “They need to learn from their experience…Even in this day and age, multi-million pound deals are being struck by sponsors and CROs with a little bit of hope and naivety sometimes.”

In this fascinating interview, Faulkes explains why there are issues all over the world and describes some of the ways he thinks partnerships could be improved - watch the full interview above.