A Day in the Life of a Vice President of Business Development

In this month's Day in the Life Of interview, I spoke to Nigel Stapleton, VP of Business Development in Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing for Mabion SA, about his illustrious career and some personal highlights. 

Nigel is the driving force behind Mabion's European growth as VP of Business Development. With almost 20 years' experience navigating the biopharma landscape, his track record includes commercial roles at premier CDMOs like KBI Biopharma and HALIX, plus extensive experience with industry leaders such as Eurofins Scientific, Microsafe Laboratories, and Merck Millipore. Holding advanced degrees (MSc - Wageningen University, PhD - University of Amsterdam), Nigel is a proud father of three children and, when not negotiating the next perfect deal with pharma and biotech companies, can often be found riding his mountainbike in the hills around Barcelona. 

Please could you outline your background and the career path that has led you to your current position? 

I started my career as an academic, researching how to tailor antibody effector functions and half life. However, after my PhD I decided that I wanted to go into industry instead, to make my work more applied. My first job was as head of R&D at a small contract testing lab in the Netherlands, and I have worked for service providers in the BioPharma sector ever since. I was involved in developing NAT-based rapid mycoplasma testing and rapid viral safety testing by PCR and NGS. From here I climbed up to Head of OPS and subsequently to Managing Director, before moving sideways into a commercial role at Eurofins. After two years in this role, I decided I wanted to broaden my horizon, and moved from contract testing to a CDMO, HALIX. Here I worked on larger projects, whilst still being able to leverage my background in analytics and QC for the benefit of the projects I was working on. After going through COVID, where my CDMO manufactured the DS for the AstraZeneca Adeno-based vaccine, I decided to move to a larger and more accomplished CDMO and switched to KBI. Having worked here for a few years I got the opportunity to move up to my current role as VP of BD at Mabion.

What would be the perfect start to your day? 

Action! Ideally new or existing clients contacting me with new RFPs, or progress on existing projects. With a cup of tea, a telephone and my laptop, I’ll get to work and make sure the client gets exactly what they need. This can be either my own clients, or my team working as a well oiled machine to ensure that we are the best and most successful BD team in the EU CDMO market.

Another option would be a 5 am taxi to the airport, a flight to a great location to meet new people and to interact with biotech professionals working on amazing projects. Small or large, early or late stage, each project has some kind of magic to it, and the people working in this field are uniquely captivating in their enthusiasm, their knowledge and their creativity.

Could you describe a typical day in your role? 

After the perfect start to my day there is the “to do list”, the team meetings, ensuring we are set up for success through meetings with clients, project teams, or routine BD meetings. Some days I spend quite a bit of time writing proposals, project plans, etc.

Around lunch, if time allows, I will go for a run or a bike ride in the hills and forest around my house in Catalonia. In the summer a quick swim afterwards to refresh, and then back into the fray.

Halfway the afternoon, when tiredness starts to set in, I’ll typically spend 15 minutes playing the drums to reenergise, and then make sure I get the most important items of the day completed, and the rest is parked in a to do list or planned in my agenda for the following days.

Then it’s time to make dinner, spend time with my wonderful wife and kids (I have 9 year old twin daughters and a 10 year old son), some activity in the evening, or a quiet evening with a good book before bed. 

Could you describe the most challenging or interesting day in your career so far?

Every day has its challenges and interest. I cannot confine myself to one day. The key to my happiness it to find that challenge and that excitement in each and every day.

Of course, negotiating a master service agreement with a top 10 pharma client for a huge project is great (and scary). Facing a loss of an important client and the potential to have to downsize the organisation is a huge challenge (how do you keep the team energised and looking to the future?). Speaking before a large audience of peers is a wonderful and challenging experience.

But each day has its ups and downs. I try to live each day to the fullest.

What do you most like about your role? 

I am never bored, and each day is different. I learn something (or rather lots of things) new each day and I feel that every year I have been able to grow into a better professional and a better person. Working with the most wonderful and clever people  have ever met (both clients, colleagues, and managers) on some of the worlds most cutting edge scientific breakthroughs in healthcare is a privilege I am proud to have.

What inspired you to get into your field in the first place?

Biotech fascinates me, being a part of the development of new therapies gives me a feeing of purpose (my mother for many years used a therapeutic that I worked on in several roles) and working for a service provider gives me the chance to touch on many different projects and ideas, whilst interacting with a wide range of fascinating people.

What are the biggest challenges you face? What issues affect your role?

Its not an easy market right now. There is not enough funding to push forwards many great developments in BioPharma, which can be frustrating. So many good ideas that could advance our treatments of so many debilitating illnesses are stuck due to a lack of funding.

What would you consider your biggest achievement to date, what are you most proud of? 

Working on the manufacturing of a lifesaving vaccine for COVID-19. This made a real impact on society, and it helped propel the organisation I was working for from a startup into a fully fledged CDMO.

How can people in your position better support each other? 

Open and honest communication. It is key to finding and resolving issues before they affect people’s success or job satisfaction.

Within the industry, understanding that we are perhaps competing, but also working together. I have a great relationship with many BD people from so-called competitors, and although we fight to win the same projects, we also respect each other and where possible help each other out. Its a small industry after all.

What do you see as the next big opportunity in your sector?

Technology is moving forwards at breakneck speed. In all fields of biotech advances are being made and incorporated into innovative products, processes, and technologies. We are constantly shifting paradigms, from treating disease to curing, and finally to preventing.

Using antibodies as an example; the first ones therapeutic MAbs were used as binders, with little regard for the huge complexity of the signalling motives and the interactions antibodies engage in with the rest of the body’s immune system. This is comparable to hammering a nail into a wall with a laptop. It works, but is hardly optimal use of a complex piece of technology. These days we are manufacturing bispecific or even multispecific antibodies with tailored effector functions and modified half lives. And even this, I believe, is barely scratching the true potential of these hugely complex proteins. 

The same argumentation can be made for viral vectors, for cell and gene therapies, and so on. As we build our knowledge and understanding of the intricate biological world inside each of us, we open up ways to find more subtle, more elegant, and more effective treatment options, to improve the quality of life of the people around us.
Also in manufacturing processes huge technological and scientific advances are being made. Continuous manufacturing promises lower costs and shortened timelines, rapid release testing, advanced control strategies, and higher producing manufacturing platforms. Each year brings a new inspiration.

I am very excited about what the future will bring!

Is living sustainably important to you and how do you incorporate being environmentally friendly into your day? 

As I work from home, we have made our house sustainable by adding solar panels, insulation, and heat pumps. I also have a vegetable patch in the garden where I grow quite a bit of the salads and vegetables that our family eats. We have chickens scuttling about that supply us with eggs, and we teach our children the importance of conscious and sustainable living.