Last summer, Ipsen, headquartered in Boulogne, France and Debiopharm, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland announced the renewal of their agreement here, marking a historic alliance between the two biotechs that has spanned 35 years. While any lengthy alliance has its share of challenges, the efforts of Ipsen’s Alliance Management team in continuing the relationship was recently recognized by the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP). Both companies were awarded the prestigious 2020 ASAP Award of Excellence for Long-term Established partnerships. It is an important milestone that capped a year of alliance management and negotiation between Ipsen and Debiopharm.
The annual award, according to ASAP, recognizes partnerships that have sustained excellence over the course of five or more years, typically recognizing alliance efforts that help both partners overcome challenges and adapt to evolving conditions.
As pharmaceutical companies look more and more toward external innovation to fill their pipelines, the role and importance of alliance management has grown exponentially. Typically, alliance management serves as the bridge between Ipsen and our various partners, managing key relationships between organizations and assuring delivery of optimal value for the benefit of its patients, its partner and itself. Alliance Management is tasked, in effect, with assuring all contracted obligations are met from both sides. Alliance managers require a strong understanding of pharmaceuticals and science, corporate finances and governance; they help to assure any disputes that arise between partners are quickly resolved.
“We met with representatives from Debiopharm, including their alliance manager, to carefully assess the market and discuss a framework to assure our collaboration was structured in an appropriate way to capitalize on the opportunity,” said Eric Ferrandis, VP of Strategic Alliances. “We recognized how important and unique such a long-term partnership between Ipsen and Debiopharm was. In the end we were successful in extending our agreement through 2034.”
The extension represents a long-term commitment to patients. Both companies look forward to the relationship continuing for the next 15 years.
