Case Studies
Board Addresses Virtual Firm Needs via Scale-up Experts
While sitting on the board of an East Coast-based virtual firm startup, a venture capital firm (VC) contacted Richman Chemical after learning of its services at a local biotech conference. The virtual firm needed to manufacture preclinical and validation lots of its proprietary API. However, the investors had imposed a very aggressive timeline relative to the significant scale-up challenges posed by the current process technology. Fortunately, Richman Chemical’s experienced project manager possessed the crucial skills to identify the key technological hurdles and thus guide the client through successful process improvement work. Richman Chemical went a step further and devised a contingency plan to employ the historical process methodology should the new processing technology not progress as quickly as anticipated. The transition from a non-optimized process to a more practical and efficient manufacturing scheme greatly accelerated the company’s API commercialization timeline. Ultimately, expediting the process allowed the VC to develop an optimally profitable exit strategy plan well ahead of schedule.