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Transcript
Today we're joined by Meghan Santo, who recently joined ZAGENO as part of our Cambridge-based business development team.
Meghan graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in biology after which she worked for Toxicon Corporation, first as a research associate and later as its laboratory supervisor at its Bedford, Massachusetts facility.
Meghan, welcome to the podcast.
I’d like to start by asking you a bit about Toxicon, which describes itself as a CRO, a contract research organization. Can you provide more specifics into what type of research they specialize in?
Toxicon mainly specializes in biocompatibility, so basically they take new medical devices and new drugs before they go into market and they test them to make sure that they're safe for use.
And approximately how many researchers and scientists support Toxicon's Bedford facility?
I would say there's about 75 researchers and scientists, combined.
You had a couple different roles there. As a research associate, what were your primary responsibilities?
As a research associate, I prepared the test solutions, did most of the bench work. So we prepared and extracted the test articles, whether that be the medical devices or the drugs and we extracted them and then put the data into our online database.
And how did that differ from your role as a lab supervisor?
As lab supervisor I helped with the bench work, when necessary, but my primary goal was as an intermediate between sales and clients. So, I was the direct contact with the clients about testing requirements and any questions they had about testing. And then I also monitored and quality checked the data entry from the research associates. And then I did all of the inventory and purchasing for my lab.
...I did all of the inventory and purchasing for my lab.
I'd like to tap into the procurement side of your lab supervisor role. Can you describe the process of fulfilling lab supplies for the scientists at Toxicon's lab?
So, we used a program called eRequester; I wasn't trained how to use it when I actually started and was left to navigate it myself. So, basically we had an Excel document of all the CAS numbers for the products that we commonly used, but I found out pretty quickly that it wasn't all of the supplies that we needed.
So, the first order that I put into eRequester actually got sent back to me, because I had multiple vendors on the same order, which I guess was not allowed. So they sent that back to me. And when I actually tried to repurchase it, one of the things that I had originally purchased wasn't available anymore. So I had to go through kind of a Google search and find what I needed and then had to send it to billing, get it approved, and then actually had to go back into eRequester and put it in there, like myself, manually add it, and then it gets approved by billing and then it gets sent to us.
So, you were forced to use Google to locate items?
Exactly, yes.
And how common do you think this is across the industry?
I'm pretty sure that's what most people do, to be honest. Because you get products that you don't use every day that you don't order all the time. And the only way to find them is Google if they're not through the platform that you use.
And so how often did you do this? How many days a week would you need to purchase lab supplies?
I would say maybe once or twice a week. I would have to put an order in mostly depending on the amount of projects that came through that week. So, it was pretty hard to tell how much of something that we would need before we actually needed it. So, if we've got a ton of projects at once, I would go through all of our supplies really quickly and I would sometimes have to put more than one order in a week.
I would have to put an order in mostly depending on the amount of projects that came through that week. ... if we've got a ton of projects at once, I would go through all of our supplies really quickly and I would sometimes have to put more than one order in a week.
You talked earlier about the approvals process. Can you break down who was normally involved in placing orders?
So, I put the order in and then it was sent to my manager who basically approved that...yes, we do need that for whatever project we're working on. And then it was sent to billing who approves the actual purchase and the numbers part of it.
Okay. So there was a three step process before an order actually took place?
Exactly.
And that would take minutes or would it sometimes take days depending on people's availability?
Yeah, it definitely depended on how busy everyone was at the time. Sometimes it would go through pretty quickly, but because there were three people that it had to go through, depending on, sometimes my manager would be in surgeries and sometimes the billing person wasn't available. So it definitely could take a couple days.
Did this process ever cause disruptions to productivity with the lab scientists themselves and the projects that we're working on?
One of the main things was that we couldn't track any of the orders. So, sometimes even if it went through the three people and got approved very quickly, we still would have really no way of knowing exactly when it would come in.
Yeah, I would say it would definitely cause some issues. One of the main things was that we couldn't track any of the orders. So, sometimes even if it went through the three people and got approved very quickly, we still would have really no way of knowing exactly when it would come in. I mean there would be an expected date but it wasn't always correct. So that was hard and a lot of the times we had project specific needs. So if I would order something for a very specific project, we couldn't start that project until it came in. So if, if there were any delays then the whole project would be delayed.
Would backorders also become an issue to productivity?
Absolutely. So, we had one issue with the backorder where we needed one specific thing to complete the testing that we needed to do and it actually put us in a tough place with the client because our clients have pretty specific deadlines to meet for the submissions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). So anything that gets pushed back on our end also pushes back their submission, which can be extremely costly for them. It's definitely important that we get our stuff on time. So yeah, this definitely caused issues.
So this was not only costly for Toxicon’s clients, but for Toxicon itself. In other words their reputation was on the line here, as well?
Exactly. If they're not getting what client's need when they need them, then it's likely that they could back out, come future products that they have.
At a point you learned about ZAGENO. What were your first impressions when you heard about the ZAGENO life science marketplace?
I got a call from a recruiter telling me about a sales job that they had and at first I was kind of hesitant. I have a medical background so I wasn't really eager to go into sales and then he started describing ZAGENO and I actually laughed on the phone because I closely related to everything that he was talking about and how annoying it (purchasing) had been to me in the past... to do the ordering.
So, immediately I was pretty interested.
... then he started describing ZAGENO and I actually laughed on the phone because I closely related to everything that he was talking about...
Your focus on biology both as a student and then as a professional puts you in that category of mission driven people. Was science always on your radar and what do you think drove that interest?
Science was something just that always interested me. I think even from middle school to high school age, it was something I knew I always wanted to be a part of. It was just something that really made sense to me. So I knew pretty early on that I wanted to work in science and to keep within that field as I got older.
And so now you, you've come aboard at ZAGENO, how has that transition been for you? Do you, do you still feel mission-driven?
Absolutely. I mean, as I said, when I heard about ZAGENO, I instantly was extremely interested because I related to it and I knew that this was a problem that a ton of people had and that it could so easily be solved with ZAGENO. So, I immediately wanted to be part of that and make this global problem have a solution.
I definitely see the mission and I wanted to be a part of that. I believe that ordering takes a lot of time away from the day that could be better used. Everyone that I worked with was extremely busy. We always had stuff going on, so to have to sit down and take two hours of the day to order some glassware is just kind of ridiculous. And the fact that we could have this platform and sit down and order your things within minutes is just amazing. And I think it could be of such great help to everyone there.
I definitely see the mission and I wanted to be a part of that. We always had stuff going on, so to have to sit down and take two hours of the day to order some glassware is just kind of ridiculous.
You supported a team of 75 scientists. So in your opinion, is ZAGENO also suitable for a small biotech of maybe 10 scientists and conversely a big pharma with thousands of scientists?
Absolutely. I think the common denominator is that ordering is difficult for everyone regardless of the size of the lab. So, I think that having this platform, everyone can be on the same page with ordering. It will be quicker for everyone and overall we'll just increase the productivity no matter what size of the company.
... the common denominator is that ordering is difficult for everyone regardless of the size of the lab.
Megan, it has been so interesting speaking with you and learning about the role of the lab supervisor and how their decisions directly affect lab efficiency, deadlines and even customer needs. Thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you for having me.
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