Unlike traditional drug development, cell therapy logistics require extremely close, integrated relationships with contract research (CRO) and manufacturing (CDMO) organizations. Due to the direct line from patient to manufacturing and back, these partners function as critical extensions of the core team to ensure timeliness and safety.

Industry partnerships are crucial for more than just funding. Collaborating with pharmaceutical companies provides translation-focused questions that guide the design of advanced cell models, ensuring they are predictive, scalable, and compatible with real-world development workflows.

Voyager CEO Al Sandrock views partnerships as more than just revenue. He emphasizes that strong scientific collaborations are invaluable because direct interaction between partner scientists accelerates learning and overall progress for both organizations. This intellectual cross-pollination is a key, often overlooked, benefit of partnering out platform technology.

While large pharmaceutical companies are filled with a wide breadth of smart people, smaller biotech firms offer a different kind of intellectual environment. They feature the same degree of brilliance, but it's concentrated in a much more focused organization, creating a unique depth of talent.

Scientists in specialized roles like immunogenicity risk becoming siloed service providers. To maintain impact and growth, they must proactively collaborate with other functions like CMC, safety, and quality. This provides a holistic view of drug development and integrates their expertise into the entire process.

By partnering with Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics (FCDI), the company that developed its core technology, Kenai avoids a costly and risky tech transfer process. FCDI's existing facility can handle both clinical and future commercial scale-up, a significant operational and financial advantage.

While its internal pipeline targets oncology, LabGenius partners with companies like Sanofi to apply its ML-driven discovery platform to other therapeutic areas, such as inflammation. This strategy validates the platform's broad applicability while securing non-dilutive funding to advance its own assets towards the clinic.

When seeking partnerships, biotechs should structure their narrative around three core questions pharma asks: What is the modality? How does the mechanism work? And most importantly, why is this the best differentiated approach to solve a specific clinical challenge and fit into the competitive landscape?

For smaller biotechs, the key to a successful CRO relationship is treating them as a genuine partner. This requires moving beyond a transactional, fear-based dynamic to one of open communication and mutual respect. Biotechs should actively solicit CRO feedback, as they possess valuable cross-industry insights and can identify sponsor-side behaviors that need to change.