A full time equivalent (FTE) agreement is when a customer hires a dedicated person or team, for an allocated time period, to work exclusively on their project. This is different to a fee for service (FFS) arrangement, which is an agreed price for a delivered product.
An FTE can offer a number of advantages, especially if your molecule is in the discovery or preclinical phase. They offer flexibility and foster collaboration and partnership. Here, we explore five advantages of choosing an FTE for your project, and the challenges that onboarding an FTE will help you overcome.
Five advantages of choosing an FTE for your outsourced project
A key challenge when your project is in the early stages of development is that the chemistry is more speculative. You may have several molecules that require investigation before you find your lead compound, and may want to try different synthetic routes, all while remaining responsive to project outcomes, efficient and operating within short time frames.
An FTE can provide you with the flexibility to change direction quickly, investigate different approaches, take risks, “fail fast” and move onto the next molecule without the need to engage in proposal discussions, change orders and additional paperwork. Instead, an FTE can offer a seamless transition into your next phase of work.
Another barrier to your project’s success might include lacking the necessary knowledge, internal resources, expertise and equipment to address challenges immediately as they arise. An FTE allows you to tap into external expertise and specialist equipment, offering more flexible access to multi-disciplined resources during the lifetime of the project. For example, one month of FTE could be used for two weeks of a chemist’s time followed by two weeks of an analyst’s time. Or if required, it might provide an opportunity to spend additional time on lead discovery, looking into patents or route scouting, followed by a phase of process development and then analytical work. This flexibility when it comes to allocating resource and equipment allows you to achieve your goals more quickly.
In larger organisations, volume of work may cause delays or other projects may need to take priority to meet deadlines. An FTE guarantees an agreed level of resource over a longer period, providing peace of mind that your project is taking priority and continuing to progress, regardless of other ongoing projects within your business. An FTE is a dedicated resource that has defined project goals, which align with your own, and who prioritises your results.
Your FTE will become an extension of your team, and you will have direct access to and communication with them, which enables flexibility and responsiveness to project changes. A collaborative approach fosters idea exchange between the two companies, as well as openness and honesty, even when hurdles arise. Your FTE works exclusively on your project, making it as important to them as it is to you. They take ownership and accountability for the work that they do on your behalf, and care about your project’s outcome.
Responsiveness, flexibility, continuity and partnership together mean that you will achieve your end goal faster, in collaboration with your chosen CDMO.
The customer pays a fixed rate per FTE which is independent of compound or a requirement for different disciplines. This may provide better value for money than other outsourcing arrangements. If your project is early phase, it has a degree of high risk and has uncertain outcomes, an FTE may be the most suitable and cost-effective option for you and your project.
Why partner with Sterling?
Often early phase projects can be complicated, with multiple avenues of investigation and complex synthetic challenges.
At Sterling, we are more than a traditional contract development and manufacturing organisation. We are a PDMO®, or partnership development and manufacturing organisation. We believe that nurturing and developing relationships with our customers is key to a successful project outcome. To help nurture true scientific partnership, and foster relationships, we endeavour to ensure that personnel remain consistent throughout the project’s lifecycle. This creates continuity and negates the need to handover projects, which would require new personnel to learn about your project from scratch. Sometimes changes do need to be made, and as a vendor we make sure to build in training time and a structured hand over.
Under an FTE agreement the customer and vendor work together to manage the FTE resources, which is different to an FFS agreement where the vendor has primary responsibility. This suits a long-term agreement, builds relationships and fosters longer term collaboration.
