Selling Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) services is a complex task that demands a versatile skill set, encompassing drug development expertise, technical and analytical knowledge in drug product manufacturing, equipment familiarity, and overall selling skills. Drug-device combination products bring an additional layer of complexity due to the variety of devices, intricate supply chains, and additional manufacturing processes for filling and assembly. This complexity is heightened in inhalation (nasal/pulmonary) product development, where device variability and rigorous analytical testing are significant challenges. This article explores the intricacies of selling these services and highlights the essential attributes of an exceptional business development professional.

The CDMO industry, as we know today, largely started in the late 1990s driven by multiple factors, amongst these the selling of excess manufacturing facilities by global pharmaceutical companies as older products went off patent.¹ The greatest growth driver, however, was the explosion of early-stage bio/pharma companies, thanks to the maturity of biotechnology and the availability of external funding.¹ Due to the cost of establishing owned manufacturing facilities, these emerging biopharma companies (EBPs) fuelled the CDMO industry by outsourcing all or part of their product development and/or manufacturing requirements.