Customer Case Study 1: Bacitracin Zin API Story
Retrospect
Mr. Kim is the sourcing manager for a pharmaceutical company dealing with dermatological products.
He wanted to find another bacitracin zinc manufacturer with a shorter lead time, extra micronized bacitracin zinc powder, and better prices.
Though he has been in touch with at least 3 other suppliers in China before, he just would not settle with the same price and terms other suppliers could offer him.
His plan fell short due to either the price or the technical issues.
Finally, he reached out to us through our website.
After several emails and about a 30-minute phone call, he decided to pay us a visit in person.
Then 5 days later he took a flight and sat down with us in our office.
Challenges Ahead Of Us
The regular particle size distribution for Zinc Bacitracin Powder is 99% NMT 20 microns.
Although this specification can meet the demands of all current customers to produce their powder spray mixed with polymyxin B sulfate powder and neomycin, what Mr. Kim needs is 99% NMT 10 microns and a similar price.
To get 10 microns we need to reset specific different parameters for our machine for his production, testing from small quantities to pilot batch.
Those extra steps would not only cost more raw materials but also require another spare production line for the micronization, which also
Finally, after our thorough calculation, the PSD change will make the cost of 10-microns bacitracin zinc powder go up at least 15.8%.
How The Story Ended
The Good thing was we finally worked both issues out.
The Pharmaceutical power spray of Mr. Kim’s company also has Polymyxin B Sulphate in it, but he is not using ours before for their production.
After rounds of negotiations, we finally reached a deal with Mr. Kim.
He would order both bacitracin zinc and Polymyxin B sulfate powder from us so we could give him a good price for bacitracin zinc micronized powder.
Meanwhile, he should least order at least 100-kilogram bacitracin zinc and 50-kilogram Polymyxin B sulfate each year so we can keep the yearly price stable.
How Did We Do It?
After thorough discussions and meetings with our technicians and QC team, we managed to spare one specific micronizing machine specifically for Mr. Kim’s production.
Only in this way, the micronizing process would not be too complicated for our workers.
The second issue was the price.
Though his demand for zink bacitracin each year was not much, Mr. Kim had a very tough target price.
That was also the main reason why the other 3 suppliers cannot work with him.
But if Mr. Kim could order other APIs from our company to cover our low margin on bacitracin zinc powder, it would make his impossible target price very possible.
Because no supplier could afford to sell him bacitracin zinc powder at that price if he only ordered one item from other Chinese suppliers.
If they said yes to Mr. Kim, the more Mr. Kim ordered, the more money suppliers would lose on it.
This combined-order success turned out to be a successful negotiation lesson for the colleagues of our sister companies.
If you thought this would be the end of the story, you are wrong.
Mr. Kim had ordered other new antibiotics from us after our first order due to our good service and high quality.
He turned out to be our regular customer now.
In case you have any difficulties finding the right API manufacturers in China, you are welcome to contact us anytime!