Year: 2017-18

Company: Gilead Sciences

Liaison(s): Nicholas Almeida, Pat Barth, Lind Claudio, Christopher Ohm, Jarett L’Abbe

Headquartered in Foster City, California, Gilead Sciences is a leading biopharmaceutical company striving to develop novel medicine to address unmet medical needs. Gilead Sciences currently markets more than 24 products, which include treatments for HIV/AIDS, liver disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease.

A major part of Gilead’s strategy is to outsource as much as 70% of their manufacturing efforts, which allows for increased flexibility and capability in supplying their drugs to patients. Gilead is seeking an outside perspective in an effort to improve and optimize the management and execution of their outsourced manufacturing business/processes.

The KGI team was tasked with researching and benchmarking the outsourced manufacturing practices of other companies, especially biopharmaceuticals, to identify and implement potential best practices at Gilead.

The team began by conducting market research and KOL interviews to understand the business processes, systems, performance metrics, and relationship management elements associated with CMO management; this provided some insights into the practices across various industries. After obtaining an understanding of Gilead’s current practices, additional surveys and KOL interviews were conducted to gain deeper insights into the practices across the biopharmaceutical industry so that potential best practices, including a balanced scorecard and roles and responsibilities matrix (RACI) could be identified and recommended for adoption by Gilead.