Virginie Mathieu has deep experience in R&D Procurement having worked at some of the world’s biggest Pharmaceutical companies in France and Canada.
In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast she shares her experiences in supporting the experimental end of pharma and advice for partnering with scientists.
“R&D is a very specialised form of procurement. You really need to know what you’re talking about, so it helps to have a scientific background.”
When it comes to recruiting team members into the R&D Procurement roles Virginie says it’s hard to find people with knowledge of both (procurement and science) “so we train team members build the skills to learn about the other side “
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Focus on stakeholder satisfaction
Her advice for anyone moving into R&D procurement is the learn the business so you can build trust.
“Focus on their satisfaction just like a commercial function would target the customer satisfaction.”
“The very first step, is to connect, to understand and ask question, being curious to understand what are the objectives, what’s in what’s in it for them. “
“Once you identify their needs, then you always find an opportunity to showcase your value. You can create value and trust based on your work together.”
Constantly sourcing for innovation
Research & Development means there always a fast pace of changing requirements, meaning that both Procurement and the Suppliers they partner with have to keep up.
“While there are a lot of recurring purchases which can be standardised, in R&D there will be always be changing requests due to innovation.”
“To manage a specific request due to innovation is the exact same process as a first-time purchase. It requires more work to understand the need so you can drive the business to the best procurement solution.”
Virginie believes that it’s important to search for innovative suppliers yourself, as otherwise you can miss market opportunities
“Today we have a lot of tools to find suppliers, using social media or reading specialised articles, market reports and events. The best source of information, generally speaking, is the business itself, because they are passion for what they do. “
“I think innovation is everywhere, in every category, just for the simple fact that we are living in a time where AI and digital innovation, is potentially everywhere, “
In her experience Marketplaces generally aren’t useful for finding suppliers until they are able to fully qualify suppliers.
“We have a need to we have a qualification need because there is the quality need. And the qualification step is, in my opinion, preventing those markets marketplace to go to the next level.”
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