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Start by reading what the confidentiality agreement allows
Before writing anything, find out what the contract allows. A confidentiality agreement may rule out the client's name, but also process details, volumes, dates or price. The European Commission lists manufacturing processes, the price offered in a tender and information on whom a company buys from and sells to among the kinds of information a trade secret can cover.
The EU Trade Secrets Directive 2016/943 (Article 2), and Law 1/2019 in Spain (Article 1), protect that information when it is secret, has value because it is secret and its holder takes reasonable steps to keep it so. Article 4(3) of the directive treats disclosure without the holder's consent in breach of a confidentiality agreement as unlawful. So the first step is to talk to whoever owns the contract on your side.
What you can say without naming the client
An anonymous case study persuades when it is specific about everything except the name. Buyers need to recognise a problem like their own. This is the information you can propose to the client, point by point, so they decide what can appear and how.
- The type of company, such as a European CDMO, a clinical-stage biotech or a pharma company with its own plant.
- The type of process, such as CHO cell culture for mAbs, a vaccine or a cell therapy.
- Scale in ranges, for example from lab to pilot plant.
- The starting problem, in the client's own words.
- What was done and in what order, from URS to FAT and SAT.
- A result the client has approved, even if it is qualitative.
Is an anonymous case study credible?
It is if it is specific. A well-explained process, scale and problem tell a sector buyer a great deal, even without a logo. What hurts credibility is generic phrasing and unexplained results. If the client agrees, you can also offer a private call with them to buyers who are close to a decision.
How to get sign-off from quality and legal
At a pharma company, a text about a project crosses more than one desk. The person who ran the project is usually supportive, but quality, legal and often communications will read it too. It helps a lot to send them a short draft that is already anonymised, rather than asking permission for an idea.
Prepare a table listing every fact in the text and how you have handled it. For example, scale as a range instead of the exact volume, or the year instead of the month. Get approval in writing and keep the approved version. If you later want to reuse the case in another piece, ask again.
Do you have projects sitting in a drawer because of an NDA? Leave your details and we will tell you which ones could become a publishable case.
Review my projectsFormats that persuade without the client's name
A case study does not have to be a two-page PDF. Some formats work better when the name cannot appear, because they put the weight on the technical problem and on the way your team works.
- A one-paragraph problem and solution block on the product page.
- An application note with data from your own lab and none from the client.
- An approved quote attributed to a role, such as head of process at a European CDMO.
- A more detailed meeting deck that is only shown under NDA.
- A trade show summary with process and scale, and no logos at all.
Can I name the client in a private meeting?
It depends on the confidentiality agreement. Some allow you to mention the client in private conversations and others rule it out completely. If it is unclear, ask in writing. When in doubt, present the case without the name and offer a direct reference only if the client agrees.
How to publish it so it helps your website too
An anonymous case can make a strong page if it has real detail. Google asks whether content shows first-hand expertise and provides original information. A specific text about a process, a scale and a problem does that even without the client's name. A vague text full of brochure phrases adds nothing.
Give it its own page with a title that states the problem, such as scaling a perfusion process to pilot plant. Link to it from the equipment page and from your sector page. Put the name of the person on your team who ran the project on it, since they are the one who can answer questions.
How long does pharma client approval take?
It depends on the company and there is no fixed timeline. What shortens it is arriving with a short, already anonymised draft and having one person on the client side coordinating reviews. What drags it out is sending a new version every week. That is why it pays to ask as the project closes, while everything is fresh.
If the client agrees to be named, make the most of it
When a client agrees to be named, do not spend it on a short text. A video in which the client tells the story, a signed quote and a full page can work for years on the website, at trade shows and in proposals. Even then, everything goes through the same approvals.
One example is the customer video TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions published with Libre Foods, in which Libre Foods explains how it uses TECNIC's lab bioreactors. That format only works when the client wants to appear, which is why it is worth asking at the end of every project, while the relationship is good and the results are recent.
Play the video. Customer success story. Libre Foods achieves scalable fermentation with TECNIC