Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017 - 40

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

changing contexts, and technological innovation. Even
when projects don't work out, recognizing technical failure
quickly and being able to move on frees us up to work on
new projects. Today, the biopharma industry is much better at finding where collaboration works best."

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Ahouse recognizes that even outside of alliance management, biopharma as a complex cross-functional
international enterprise requires people with alliance
skills. These are the kinds of people who can live with
ambiguity and difference even as they get things done.
"At this point, collaboration touches every aspect of our
industry, and it is critical to find ways to keep improving
and get the most out of each opportunity."

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"Collaboration is crucial to our success. Our alliance leads
must respond to the needs of both Celgene and the partner. Sometimes this means educating the Celgene teams
on the partner's perspectives, sometimes it means helping
the partner understand Celgene's perspective. Often what
counts is the most critical data, how we should come to
conclusions, or what we should do when those conclusions
differ between the parties, and we have to build a crucible
strong enough to work through differences and facilitate
informed decision making and do so expediently. We feel
an urgency to advance delivery of disease-altering medicines for patients who are waiting."
Celgene relies on its distributed research model, one of
the largest in the industry, to leverage partners' promising
early-stage compounds to build its pipeline. "Collaboration allows us to build on our partners' strengths and
learn from their perspectives as we bring important and
life-changing treatments that may change the course of
human health, reduce the burden on healthcare, and help
our economy grow through greater productivity. Celgene's
distributed research model helps us remain nimble and
lean as we do that."

Before joining Celgene's alliance team two years ago,
Ahouse had the opportunity to work in explicitly
cross-functional alliance roles for a number of companies
and with many of their biotech, pharma, and academic partnerships. His strong operational background and
expertise in cross-disciplinary work has also included informatics and software development. After completing a
PhD in cellular immunology and a post-doc in developmental genetics, he served in alliance roles with Novartis,
ImmunoGen, Vantage, and Millennium.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 * 2017

"At this point, collaboration
touches every aspect
of our industry, and it is
critical to find ways to keep
improving and get the most
out of each opportunity."
-Jeremy Ahouse, CSAP, PhD

Along with serving on ASAP's board, Ahouse chaired the
committee that prepares the CSAP and CA-AM certification exams. He has an abiding interest in multi-party
agreements and in the ways that collaborations enhance
scientific creativity. Given that background, it is little wonder that he encourages his Celgene colleagues to participate
in ASAP programs to keep learning and to participate in
presentations, roundtables, and webcasts.
Ahouse considers ASAP the premier alliance management professional organization. "Participating with
ASAP gives our team a chance to meet experienced alliance managers. Managing alliances requires combining
diplomacy, leadership skills, and technical competence."
According to Ahouse, though alliance management remains a relatively young profession, ASAP prides itself
in bringing together people who navigate cross-company implementation challenges and are willing to share.
"We look to ASAP to be a clearinghouse for important
ideas, helpful practices, educational opportunities, and a
repository of both what works and what doesn't as the
profession matures."
Celgene's alliance management team sits within its business development and global alliances group. Celgene
established a dedicated alliance management group a
half-dozen years ago. The number of collaborations Celgene manages and its alliance team have grown since.
The alliance leads work closely with executives and
groups across the company, such as research, finance,
legal, regulatory, manufacturing, HR, compliance, communications, and project leadership. They form global
cross-functional teams to bring collaborations through
the drug development process.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017