Do you as a company with a brilliant idea to solve a healthcare issue need to hire a Chief Medical Officer(CMO) at an early stage of your development?
The answer is NO, a perspective

Lets look at a typical job responsibility of a CMO

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the following:

1) Direct the development of clinical strategies and plan to integrate compounds into the standard practice of the subject indication sometimes 2 or 3 indications.
2) Orchestrate and manage clinical aspects of regulatory strategies and interactions with Health Authorities.
3) Oversee the analysis and interpretation of clinical trial data and the reporting of clinical trial results
4) Lead interactions with academic thought leaders, investigators, cooperative groups, and other clinical stakeholders
5) Provide clinical support and work with other members of the management team to develop and communicate the overall corporate strategy
6) Represent the Company and its programs to external audiences, including the investment, medical and regulatory communities, as well as pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry collaborators/partners

In addition to leading and supervising the Clinical Research Department the CMO will have direct line responsibility for the Clinical Operations, Patient Advocacy, Medical Affairs, and Biometrics Departments.

The above job really augments to having a senior medical practitioner or a very senior experienced leader from a competitor organisation. Both of which will need big dollars to invest.

Do you really want to invest in the early stage of an idea or would you like to have the same result as a service on need basis and save cost before you reach critical milestones.

A company may require a CMO in various ways as:

1. Virtual CMO

An entrepreneur managing a growing business, needs a strategic partner to lead & manage the clinical aspects of the business. This CMO may not be present on-site all the time but will always be there when you need him/her.
Depending on the size and the growth stage of your company, a flexible engagement model, enabling you to increase/decrease engagement levels, thereby giving you the opportunity of having the best CMO talent assisting you, based on your needs. Our ongoing Virtual CMO retainer engagements can be as low as 2 hours a week and can go as high as 35 hours a week. This flexible engagement model will help you keep your costs variable and low but the experience will always remain enriching and memorable.

2. Interim CMO

Many a times, companies require someone to immediately take over the responsibilities as their CMO. This could happen when the incumbent CMO suddenly quits or may fall sick for a long period of time. In such a scenario, you could either put in all your efforts in searching for a new CMO and lose out on precious time and money until the new recruit starts working for your company or you could bring in an experienced CMO, as your Interim CMO. This will help the company tide over the gap formed by the departing CMO and the incoming CMO.

3. Special Purpose CMO

There may be times when your company is handling multiple therapeutic areas at the same time. This can put immense pressure on your existing CMO who may find it increasingly difficult to do justice to the projects. Instead of spreading your CMO too thin, you may want to distribute the responsibility as per the expertise on the subject. This CMO steps in as a ‘Special Purpose CMO’ for a limited period, till the time the company requires its help. This CMO works in tandem with your existing senior management team and your full time CMO to expedite and execute these multiple projects with great efficiency.

CMO as a service can be a win-win engagement with organisations at different stages as a Strategic Partner, and not just as any other Employee or an Advisor. Moreover, as a growing company, you may not need services of a full time CMO. This service provide unique flexibility of gradually increasing engagement levels, as the need increases with growth. This ensures that you get quality service on a continuous ongoing basis, depending on your needs and cost budgets.

If your thought matches ours, we at Alpha MD are ready to help. We have a rich experienced global network of CMOs across all therapeutics who can be a perfect fit for your company. Our CMOs have experience across Drugs, devices, diagnostics, biologics & cell therapy.

Write to us at amita@alphamd.com, we will be happy to assist in your long term goal.

www.alphamd.com