Frequently Asked Questions

The CDMO Leadership Awards (CDMOLAs) are an annual, sponsor-driven recognition program honoring contract development and manufacturing organizations that biopharma companies rate highest in overall performance and partnership excellence.

Unlike application-based awards, recognition is determined entirely through independent sponsor survey data collected by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD). The program reflects real-world outsourcing experience across development, manufacturing, and supply chain collaboration.

The awards recognize both overall performance through CDMO of the Year distinctions and focused excellence through Best in Class attributes, along with select Jury Awards recognizing broader industry impact.

The survey measures sponsor experience with CDMOs based on recent outsourcing relationships. The primary scoring input is a likelihood-to-recommend rating, supported by contextual performance questions and best-in-class attribute rankings.

For a detailed breakdown of survey structure, scoring inputs, and thresholds, please refer to the methodology page.

The CDMO Leadership Awards research is conducted in partnership with the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (Tufts CSDD), an independent academic organization with deep expertise in pharmaceutical development and outsourcing trends. Tufts supports survey design, respondent eligibility validation, and data analysis to strengthen methodological rigor, consistency, and objectivity. Life Science Connect administers the survey and ensures data integrity, but does not influence responses or outcomes.

For questions about participating in future surveys, please contact csdd@tufts.edu.

The survey is distributed to qualified biopharma professionals across the Life Science Connect communities. Respondents must have worked with a CDMO within the previous 24 months to rate that CDMO in the core award categories.

To ensure statistical relevance and fairness, a company must receive a minimum number of completed, eligible reviews in a given award category to be ranked and considered for an award. Companies that do not meet this minimum threshold are not eligible for recognition in that cycle, regardless of individual scores. Currently, a minimum of seven completed reviews per category is required for award consideration.

Additional details on scoring models and qualification thresholds are outlined on the methodology page.

CDMO of the Year represents the highest level of sponsor-rated recognition within each modality and size category.

These awards reflect overall performance across the full spectrum of sponsor experience, including service delivery, partnership quality, execution, and likelihood to recommend. Finalists represent the Top 3 organizations in each category based on aggregated survey results, with one winner ultimately selected.

CDMO of the Year awards serve as the central recognition of the evening and highlight organizations that sponsors consistently rate as leading partners in their respective segments.

Best in Class awards recognize sponsor-rated excellence in specific performance attributes that define successful CDMO partnerships.

Rather than measuring overall performance, these distinctions highlight strength in the operational and relationship drivers that sponsors evaluate every day, including service execution, team quality, collaboration, and scalability.

Awards are granted by individual attribute within each modality and size category, reflecting focused areas where sponsors rate organizations highest among their peer group.

For 2026, this segment was expanded in response to sponsor and reader feedback requesting greater visibility into which CDMOs stand out within specific sizes and modalities. This structure provides clearer insight into performance drivers that matter most to outsourcing teams.

Best in Class honors excellence across specific sponsor-rated partnership attributes, including:

• Analytical Services

• Overall Staff

• Project Management

• Cultural Fit

• Technology Use

• Scaling Support

Finalists are eligible to be selected in one or more of these attributes within their modality and size category.

If an organization earns recognition across multiple attributes within the same grouping, those distinctions will be consolidated and reflected within the official Best in Class award.

In addition to the survey-based recognitions, select honors are presented as Jury Awards. These awards highlight excellence in areas that extend beyond quantitative performance metrics, such as leadership, innovation, sustainability, and broader contribution to the outsourcing ecosystem.

Jury Awards are determined by a panel of respected industry professionals. Survey insights may inform the panel’s discussion and evaluation, but jury awards are not determined by survey scores alone and are evaluated separately from the core CDMO Leadership Awards.

This approach ensures jury recognitions reflect both sponsor experience captured in the research and expert industry perspective.

Outsourced Pharma provides the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry with unique analysis and exclusive content for the advancement of drug development and manufacturing outsourcing. Explore with us the business and personal relationships between drug sponsors and service providers, and our positions in the global biopharma industry, and healthcare systems.

Yes. In 2025 we debuted the European CDMO Leadership Awards to highlight companies headquartered in Europe. These recognitions use the same global survey and scoring model from the main US awards, filtered to reflect performance within the European cohort.

Participants are recruited from biopharma companies of all sizes and are screened for decision-making authority and experience in outsourcing. Respondents evaluate only those CDMOs with which they have worked within the past 24 months.

To be considered for future survey participation, please contact csdd@tufts.edu.

CDMOs that manufacture API or drug product at any scale, from clinical to commercial, are eligible. Inclusion is based on sponsor-reported experience, meaning only CDMOs that have supported outsourced projects within the previous 18 months will be evaluated.

If your company is not currently listed, contact csdd@tufts.edu to ensure inclusion in the next survey cycle.

No. To preserve the independence of the program, contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) are not eligible to sponsor the CDMO Leadership Awards. Sponsorship opportunities are limited to non-CDMO organizations and do not influence survey design, scoring, shortlists, or award recipients.

No. There is no cost for CDMOs to be included in the survey or to be recognized as a winner. Winning CDMOs are featured in the CDMO Leadership Awards annual supplement, designed to give Life Science Leader and Outsourced Pharma readers a trusted, data-backed resource to evaluate potential partners.

Inclusion and recognition are based solely on qualified sponsor feedback, not commercial participation.

No. The European results come from the same global dataset collected for the main US CDMO Leadership Awards. No Europe-only survey is fielded.

The CDMO Leadership Awards research survey typically opens in the fourth quarter of the prior year. For the 2026 awards cycle, survey fielding began in December 2025.

The survey remains open through January and may be extended as needed to ensure sufficient, qualified responses across modalities and cohorts. This approach supports statistically meaningful results while maintaining consistency in the research process.