Specialist
Former SVP at inVentiv Health Inc (Syneos Health Inc)
Agenda
- Trends and developments in commercialisation capabilities, focusing on Syneos Health (NASDAQ: SYNH) vs major competitors – PPD (NASDAQ: PPD), Iqvia (NYSE: IQV), Icon (NASDAQ: ICLR) and its recently purchased subsidiary PRA
- Sector shift to virtual clinical trials due to coronavirus – technology overview and expected outcomes
- M&A overview and impact of Syneos’s recent Studykik acquisition
- Outlook for Q4 2021 and beyond, including potential portfolio and business evolution
Questions
1.
Has anything changed in your overview of the CRO [contract research organisation] industry since our Q2 2021 Forum Interview [see Syneos Health – Coronavirus Impact & 2021 Outlook – 15 April 2021]?
2.
A big focus of our Q2 2021 conversation was industry M&A and you suggested that Syneos might benefit from being acquired, just to have that sort of scale. Has your opinion changed? What else are you monitoring in the space to inform your outlook?
3.
There continues to be convergence across the board for outsourcing inputs and we know Syneos boasts the clinical and commercial capabilities. You said in April that predicting the commercial business is a bit more complex than the clinical, and therefore there weren’t too many synergies from Syneos’s side of operating the business. Where is the value in having these two offerings in one?
4.
What characteristics or data could the clinical side offer to make the commercial business better and vice versa? Do they operate as standalone businesses under the same umbrella without benefiting each other?
5.
How are you assessing Syneos’s positioning in commercial capabilities? Do you expect a different competitive dynamic across the board? How might this shift the company’s positioning?
6.
There doesn’t seem to be consensus about Syneos’s value being in clinical vs commercial. Where do you expect the greatest value to be? Do you think clinical will drive the growth for commercial, or vice versa?
7.
What will you track to gauge success for the first Syneos One drugs, which are expected to be commercialised soon? Do you think other biopharma companies are waiting for the results before entering the clinical-commercial integrated route?
8.
What is your outlook for Syneos’s clinical scale? The company seems to be falling behind in scale as market consolidation continues, so where do you expect it to play a role? Where is it accomplishing the greatest success, comparatively?
9.
What are your expectations for success with small biotech firms? In Q2 2021 you noted that the combination with commercialisation is of interest. How might Syneos evolve in this regard through the end of 2022? Iqvia has somewhat struggled in its traction with small biotech.
10.
Is Syneos potentially positioned more favourably than larger players such as Icon and PRA, given that biotech prefers to work with more of a right-sized player, or at least not as big of a company as Iqvia?
11.
How much of a threat are ex-US players posing to Syneos? Are any players quickly gaining share or shifting the dynamic for a selection of CRO partners more broadly?
12.
What’s your updated demand outlook for decentralised trials? How might Syneos perform here?
13.
How necessary might decentralised trials be for a CRO player such as Syneos?
14.
What are your expectations for Syneos to continue its growth by acquiring smaller companies? What’s your outlook around the company’s acquisition of StudyKik, a clinical trial recruitment and retention company?
15.
You seemed quite bearish in Q2 2021 about Syneos’s growth potential in the commercial business alongside the clinical business, and speculated that it might be unnecessary in its portfolio if it’s not driving growth overall. Has anything beyond the regulatory implications changed your sentiment? Does anything give you more of a hopeful assessment about the combination?
16.
We know there is a move towards CROs offering ancillary services beyond traditional clinical services. How does Syneos’s combination with commercial fare vs Iqvia’s software offering and PPD’s [Pharmaceutical Product Development’s] combo with Thermo Fisher’s legacy CDMO [contract development and manufacturing organisation] offerings? My focus is less about scale and more about the potential combination.
17.
How might Syneos fare across the board in the next five years? You noted a couple of portfolio gaps or areas that need to be addressed in the near term and last time you alluded to the possibility of getting acquired. What’s your overall take on the company’s positioning and evolution?
18.
Is there anything you’d like to reiterate or highlight about Syneos and its commercialisation path?
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