A deep understanding of life sciences and a hands on approach helped us scale quickly while maintaining strong financial controls." - June Seymour, VP Finance, Neogene Therapeutics
ABOUT THE CLIENT
Neogene Therapeutics
Neogene Therapeutics develops T cell receptor therapies for cancer, with a pipeline anchored on the company’s ability to engineer patient specific therapeutic candidates. The organization was scaling rapidly through clinical activity and supply chain build out when finance and operations leadership engaged Archer Insights to put NetSuite in place as the platform behind that growth.
In 2023, AstraZeneca acquired Neogene, validating the science and the operating model the company had built. Two functions led the engagement. Finance owned controls, reporting, and the financial discipline expected of a venture backed biotech approaching strategic transactions. Supply chain owned the operational backbone for cell therapy logistics and the vendor base supporting it.
THE CHALLENGE
Cell therapy scales faster than generic ERP templates can keep up with
Cell therapy is a category where scaling moves faster than most ERP environments can keep up with. Patient specific manufacturing carries supply chain complexity that does not look like small molecule or even like other biologics. The vendor base, the lot logic, the chain of custody, and the cost accounting all need to work together inside one system if finance is going to produce numbers that hold up under scrutiny.
The combination Neogene needed was specific. Financial controls strong enough to satisfy a venture backed board and a future acquirer. Supply chain configuration that matched cell therapy operations rather than a generic biotech template. And a hands on partner who could move at the speed the company was moving without slowing down to relearn life sciences each quarter.
What was breaking down
- Patient specific manufacturing did not fit the inventory and cost accounting patterns generic ERP templates assume
- The cell therapy vendor base required vendor records and approval logic tuned to specialized supply rather than off the shelf masters
- Scaling pace required configuration that could extend as new functions came online rather than a static initial setup
- Venture backed governance and the prospect of strategic interest required a controls layer beyond minimal defaults
- Operations and finance could not afford to work from separate systems where the data the company operated on diverged from the data the company reported
What was at stake
- Strategic interest from large pharma would surface every gap between operated and reported data
- A configuration that did not match cell therapy operations would force workarounds that eroded the audit trail
- Finance controls built for a generic biotech would not satisfy the diligence of a strategic acquirer
- Scaling pace would expose any static configuration that did not extend as new functions came online
- A partner who needed to relearn life sciences each quarter would slow the company at the moments it could least afford to slow
WHY ARCHER INSIGHTS
Life sciences depth that did not need to be relearned
Neogene needed a partner with cell therapy specific configuration experience and a delivery model that could keep up with the pace of a scaling venture backed biotech. Archer Insights was selected based on its exclusive focus on life sciences companies and its track record of NetSuite implementations across cell and gene therapy, biologics, and clinical stage biopharma.
Archer brought lot logic, chain of custody, and cost accounting patterns refined across comparable cell therapy engagements. The vendor base configuration for specialized cell therapy supply, the controls posture suited to venture backed governance and strategic acquirer scrutiny, and the hands on partnership model that allowed the build to keep pace with company growth were validated in production environments comparable to Neogene’s.
THE SOLUTION
One environment for finance and supply chain
Archer Insights configured NetSuite around the operating profile of a scaling cell therapy company rather than a generic biotech template. Financial controls were built to support the standard finance disciplines and the audit posture a future acquirer would expect to see. Supply chain configuration tracked the vendor base, lot logic, and operational data that cell therapy programs depend on.
ARCHER CELL THERAPHY OPERATING MODEL FLOW
01 Finance controls
Approval routing, segregation of duties, audit trails
Controls posture suited to venture backed governance and strategic diligence
02 Supply chain
Vendor base, lot logic, chain of custody
Operational data captured in the same environment finance reports against
03 Cost accounting
Therapy unit level cost tracking
Cost accounting tied to the patient specific therapy unit rather than standard inventory
04 Reporting
Consolidated reporting aligned with growth stage biotech expectations
Numbers investors and acquirers can rely on through transactions
05 Cross function alignment
Finance and supply chain on the same configuration
Reported data and operated data are the same data
One NetSuite environment. Finance and supply chain working from the same record. No parallel systems between operations and reporting.
WHAT ARCHER BUILT
01 - Cell therapy specific lot logic and chain of custody
Patient specific manufacturing was configured with lot logic, chain of custody, and cost accounting tied to the therapy unit rather than to a standard inventory item. The configuration captures the operational reality of autologous and allogeneic workflows that generic ERP templates do not handle cleanly.
The result is that finance reports against the same lot records that supply chain operates on. The cost accounting is tied to the therapy unit, not abstracted into standard inventory pools that obscure what the cost actually represents.
02 - Specialized vendor base configuration
The vendor base was configured for the specialized supply that cell therapy programs depend on. Vendor records and approval logic match the way the company actually buys across CDMOs, reagent suppliers, logistics partners with cold chain capability, and the clinical service providers that surround patient specific therapy delivery.
03 - Financial controls suited to venture backed governance
Approval routing, segregation of duties, and audit ready trails were configured to match the controls posture a venture backed biotech needs through its scaling phase and a future strategic acquirer expects to see during diligence. The configuration was not generic. It was tuned for the kind of scrutiny Neogene would face.
04 - Consolidated reporting aligned with growth stage expectations
Reporting was built to support the financial discipline expected of a venture backed biotech approaching strategic transactions. Numbers leadership and investors could rely on through the period before the AstraZeneca transaction, and the configuration that produced those numbers did not need to be restructured for the diligence that followed.
05 - Cross function alignment between finance and supply chain
Finance and supply chain leadership worked through the same configuration of NetSuite, so the data Neogene operated on and the data Neogene reported were the same data. The parallel systems problem that affects most scaling biotechs, where operational data and financial data diverge as functions add their own tools, did not develop at Neogene.
06 - Hands on partnership at company pace
The engagement was run with the kind of hands on collaboration that allows a scaling biotech to keep moving while the platform takes shape. Finance leadership had a partner on the controls side. Supply chain leadership had a partner on the operations side. The partner did not need to relearn life sciences between conversations.
MODULES DEPLOYED
| Module | What it does | Impact at Neogene |
|---|---|---|
| NetSuite OneWorld | Multi entity financials, consolidations, multi currency | One environment shared by finance and supply chain |
| Inventory and lot logic | Lot tracking, chain of custody, therapy unit level visibility | Patient specific manufacturing captured in the same record finance reports against |
| Cost accounting | Therapy unit level cost tracking tied to lot records | Cost data tied to the patient specific unit rather than abstracted into standard pools |
| Procure to Pay | Vendor records and approval logic tuned for cell therapy supply | Specialized vendor base configured for CDMO, reagent, cold chain, and clinical service partners |
| Approval workflows | Routing across master data and transactions | Controls posture suited to venture backed governance and acquirer diligence |
| Reporting | Consolidated reporting for growth stage biotech expectations | Numbers that held up through the AstraZeneca diligence |
OUTCOMES
What changed after go live
Operational results
- Lot logic, chain of custody, and cost accounting tied to the patient specific therapy unit rather than standard inventory pools
- Vendor base configured for cell therapy supply across CDMO, reagent, cold chain, and clinical service categories
- Finance and supply chain operate against the same NetSuite environment with no parallel system divergence
- Configuration extended as new functions came online during the scaling phase rather than requiring a static initial setup
- Operational data is the same data finance reports against, removing reconciliation effort between the two
Finance and control results
- Financial controls posture was in place for the diligence that preceded the AstraZeneca transaction
- Reporting produced numbers leadership and investors could rely on through the scaling phase and the transaction window
- The configuration the controls and supply chain teams built did not need to be restructured for the diligence that followed
- Audit ready trails and approval evidence were available without external assembly
- AstraZeneca completed the acquisition of Neogene Therapeutics in 2023 against this baseline
THE ARCHER EDGE
Cell therapy depth that compounds across the build
A scaling cell therapy company cannot afford a partner who needs to relearn life sciences every quarter. The patient specific manufacturing, the cold chain logistics, the specialized vendor base, and the cost accounting realities that make cell therapy different from small molecule or even from biologics need to be in the partner’s hands from the first conversation.
Archer Insights brings cell therapy depth that compounds across the build. The lot logic, chain of custody, and cost accounting patterns refined across comparable engagements are applied to the operating profile of the new company rather than discovered through trial and error during the implementation.
The second differentiator is the configuration approach. Finance and supply chain shared one environment rather than drifting toward separate tools as the company scaled. The parallel systems problem that consumes diligence time at most scaling biotechs did not develop. The exit followed.
Scale a cell therapy build with Archer
If your cell or gene therapy company is scaling and needs financial controls and supply chain configuration that match the realities of patient specific manufacturing, Archer Insights can show you what a shared environment looks like for finance and operations.
Scale a cell therapy build with Archer
ABOUT ARCHER INSIGHTS
Archer Insights, LLC is a NetSuite Alliance Partner serving life sciences and healthcare organizations. The firm is an Inc. 5000 company and a 5 time consecutive NetSuite Alliance Partner Spotlight Award winner (2022 through 2026), recognized for biotech and biopharma specialization. Engagements cover new NetSuite implementations, enhancement services, proprietary software modules including the Archer AI Approval Module, and managed services.