• How is the pharmaceutical industry evolving in terms of the skills and people being sought?

Chris Hall, Aptar Pharma: “There has always been a need for good science. Historically this lived in universities and ‘Big Pharma’ companies. Increasingly, these skills are now much more prevalent in development services companies.”

Ross Burn, CatSci: “With the rise in more complex medicines - the new modalities - people need to have different skills compared to ten years ago. To make a pharmaceutical, people would typically use synthetic organic chemistry and other elements of well-trodden scientific disciplines. Lots of these new modalities require the same levels of expertise, not just in synthesis, but also in solid phase chemistry, automation, PAT, etc. What was considered complex ten years ago, is no longer considered so now.  

“The problem can be is that a lot of these disciplines are not taught in universities, so there is a need for a lot of in-house training. Finding the right talent is difficult enough, but now you also need to train people in these areas, which can be more challenging for service providers compared  to large pharma. Some universities are at the vanguard of driving forward these modalities, but too often they are  producing only a handful of students. For example, the University of Dundee has its own protein degraders programmes and there are some collaborations in place, but there is still a big skill shortage in the next generation of scientists.”

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• There have been some dramatic changes to working life in recent years. How has WFH etc impacted your business?

Chris Hall, Aptar Pharma: “It is harder to build the trust and confidence necessary to do ambitious deals without face to face discussions. WFH has made the creation of new networks much harder. The return of attendees to the scientific conferences and congresses is to be welcomed.”

Ross Burn, CatSci: “Obviously any laboratory staff don’t have the opportunity to WFH, but we do try to be as flexible as possible with other staff. However, one of the learnings from Covid is that it is still very important to get people on site to build a proper sense of team.”

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• What are your views on AI, both for good and for bad?

Chris Hall, Aptar Pharma: “I believe the social challenges from AI will be enormous – how AI may be used in social media seems to me to be inconsistent with democracy and giving people access to a balanced perspective in life. For the pharma industry, the opportunity to use these immensely powerful tools for the development of new drugs and techniques and quality inspection processes is huge. We are already seeing the deployment of AI in diagnostic image analysis and I expect the list of activities where machines outperform humans to expand rapidly.”

Ross Burn, CatSci: “It is a very broad topic. In terms of drug discovery - finding better candidates and streamlining the process - it really should expedite the time it takes to get new medicines to patients. Machine learning has been used for many years; AI affords the opportunity to look at things such as where testing should be directed. I still see a great opportunity to use more and better modelling to predict outcomes and  deliver more efficacious treatment options.”

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• What tips would you give entrepreneurs in terms of growing their business, especially in the current climate?

Chris Hall, Aptar Pharma: “Look very critically at what your business does. Simplify it so your mum can understand it. Then put yourself in the shoes of the customers and other stakeholders and answer the question – So what? Does it really matter?

“Make sure you have access to enough funds to provide compelling proof that customers will pay for what you are doing. I have seen great businesses fail for the lack of alignment amongst stakeholders that the benefit is big enough to be worth the change from the current product/activity.”

Ross Burn, CatSci: “It is obviously financially tight and difficult to get capital. This provides the chance to pivot towards areas of high growth. If you don’t have the capital to conduct as many research programmes or develop as many new services as you would like, you need to really think about the areas you want to play in and can have the most impact. In the current climate, any capital needs to go to where you are likely to get solid returns, rather than unsubstantiated blue-sky thinking. Focus on the probability of success, whilst keeping your mind on risk-versus-return.

“There will be many businesses in challenging conditions looking to exit or find an investor. This is where M&A could feature highly in 2024. There are opportunities for bigger players or equity partners to get big value.”

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