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Frequently Asked Questions

Our CDMO Leadership Awards team has compiled a list of the questions we get asked most often below.

If you're still not finding the answer you're looking for, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Detailed information about survey design, scoring, eligibility, and governance is available on the methodology page.

The CDMO Leadership Awards were created to help biopharma executives make more informed outsourcing decisions. Readers of Life Science Leader and Outsourced Pharma told us that identifying and vetting the right CDMO partners can be a challenge. These awards recognize contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) that have consistently delivered excellence across key performance categories defined by the industry’s buyers.

The awards are based on a rigorous annual survey of sponsor-company users of CDMO services. Participants evaluate their recent CDMO partners across critical metrics related to capabilities, quality, reliability, expertise, compatibility, and service. Evaluations are grounded in recent, real-world outsourcing experience.

Awards are presented in three groups of outsourcing respondents: Big Pharma, Small Pharma, and Overall (combined Big and Small Pharma).

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.

Capabilities
  1. All facilities fully owned
  2. Complementary core competencies to in-house or other manufacturing contractors
  3. Facility has most up-to-date manufacturing technologies
  4. Full range of manufacturing for the dosage forms we require
  5. Has capacity to meet our demands
  6. Offers innovative solutions
  7. Proven ability to manufacture API
  8. Provides regulatory support for filing
  9. Stability testing capabilities; storage capabilities
Compatibility
  1. Access to desired markets
  2. Accessible senior management
  3. Complementary core competencies to in-house or other manufacturing contractors
  4. Cultural fit
  5. Financial strength/stability
  6. Timely project communications
  7. Well-regarded within the industry
Expertise
  1. Ability to smoothly scale up manufacturing and transfer technology
  2. Experience level of staff
  3. Offers innovative solutions
  4. Provides regulatory support for filing
  5. Scientific knowledge
  6. Strong regulatory track record
Quality
  1. Right first-time measurements
  2. Strong regulatory track record
  3. Track record for meeting quality-performance metrics
  4. Up-front contingency planning, risk management
Reliability
  1. All facilities fully owned
  2. Financial strength/stability
  3. Flexibility to adjust schedule for special requests
  4. Has capacity to meet our demands
  5. Reliable on-time delivery
  6. Timely project management
  7. Up-front contingency planning, risk management
Service
  1. Preformulation/formulation support
  2. Process development and optimization
  3. Analytical services, including stability and storage testing
  4. Regulatory support

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.

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.

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.