From Dutch Libraries to AI Drug Discovery, ASAP Honors Four Alliances Advancing the Practice of Strategic Partnerships

From Dutch Libraries to AI Drug Discovery, ASAP Honors Four Alliances Advancing the Practice of Strategic Partnerships

Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Alliance, Enduring Alliance, and Innovative Collaboration categories recognized at 2026 ASAP Summit NYC

Strategic partnerships between organizations are reshaping how business gets done, accelerating drug discovery, expanding public services, and sustaining complex manufacturing operations across borders and decades. Recognizing the alliance management discipline that makes those partnerships work, the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) announced the winners of the 2025 ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards at the 2026 ASAP Summit NYC.

Alliance management (the discipline of structuring, governing, and sustaining strategic and complex partnerships between organizations) has become a critical capability as companies and institutions increasingly rely on external relationships to drive growth and deliver impact. The ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards are the only awards dedicated specifically to advancing this practice. Winners are selected for demonstrated use of alliance management best practices and the measurable outcomes those practices produce.

This year's winners are the Covenant for Public Libraries, Isomorphic Labs and Novartis, MSD Turkiye and Bilim Pharmaceuticals, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Each was recognized across one of four award categories for the quality of their alliance management and the results it enabled.

"This year's winners span industries, geographies, and stages of alliance development, and what connects them is a shared commitment to doing the partnership work with discipline and intention," said Nicole Boston, CAE, CA-AM, President and CEO of ASAP. "From a national public-sector collaboration to an emerging AI-driven science partnership, from a 14-year manufacturing alliance to a cross-functional governance innovation, each of these teams invested in how they work together, not just what they are working toward. That is what alliance management excellence looks like in practice, and we are proud to recognize them."

Corporate Social Responsibility Award: Covenant for Public Libraries

Every public library in the Netherlands now offers a school literacy program, a milestone reached through a multi-party alliance that earned this year’s Corporate Social Responsibility Award. This category recognizes alliances that apply effective partnership practices to deliver measurable social impact for communities.

The Covenant for Public Libraries, led by the KB National Library of the Netherlands and public-sector partners, links national coordination with local execution through a formal covenant structure, aligning roles and service standards across the Dutch public library system. In 2025, the alliance achieved 100% coverage of public libraries offering the Library at School literacy program, with more than 50% of Dutch primary schools participating.

Emerging Alliance Award: Isomorphic Labs and Novartis

Isomorphic Labs and Novartis won the Emerging Alliance Award, which recognizes collaborations that apply alliance best practices during strategy development, partner selection, launch, and early execution.

Following the collaboration's announcement in January 2024, the joint team, combining Isomorphic Labs’ AI-driven drug discovery capabilities with Novartis’s therapeutic expertise, applied structured launch preparation to align strategic drivers, clarify partner contributions, and establish shared ways of working. The approach reflects a disciplined effort to build the collaboration's operating foundation before the pace of scientific work demanded it.

Enduring Alliance Award: MSD Turkiye and Bilim Pharmaceuticals

MSD Turkiye and Bilim Pharmaceuticals won the Enduring Alliance Award, which recognizes mature partnerships that demonstrate sustained performance and consistent use of alliance management practices over time.

Over more than 14 years, the alliance has sustained structured joint governance, including clear decision frameworks and multi-year roadmaps, in support of Bilim's contract manufacturing work for MSD Turkiye's diabetes portfolio. In 2025, the alliance expanded production capacity two-fold for in-scope formulation and packaging activities.

Innovative Collaboration Award: Jazz Pharmaceuticals

Jazz Pharmaceuticals won the Innovative Collaboration Award for its Partner Financial Health Assessment Process. This category honors alliances that introduce new tools, governance models, or strategic approaches that deliver measurable results and advance alliance management practices.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals was recognized for developing a structured, cross-functional process to assess alliance partner financial health. The process supports consistent information-sharing, governance discussions, and periodic review within alliance teams. It provides a repeatable framework that can help alliance managers build financial acumen and apply common assessment steps within existing alliance interactions. The approach has been shared internally across Jazz functional alliance teams and externally through the ASAP community.

“What distinguished this year’s winners is the rigor with which they approached the work of partnering itself,” said Ard-Pieter de Man, PhD, CSAP, CA-AM, Chair of the ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards Committee. “Across every category, we saw teams that treated alliance management not as an administrative function but as a strategic discipline, one that required sustained investment, clear governance, and a genuine commitment to making the partnership work. These organizations set a standard for what purposeful collaboration looks like.”

About the ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards

The ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards recognize partnerships that demonstrate effective alliance practices and sustained results. They are the only awards dedicated specifically to advancing the discipline of strategic alliance management. Learn more at www.strategic-alliances.org/alliance-excellence-awards.

About ASAP

The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) is the premier global community for professionals who drive success through strategic alliances and partnerships. As a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, ASAP serves 1500 members across 47 countries, spanning technology, biopharma, finance, energy, and professional services. ASAP offers the field’s leading professional certifications, the CA-AM and CSAP, and hosts annual global events that convene the world’s leading partnership professionals. Learn more at www.strategic-alliances.org.

Media Contact

Kimberly Miller
Director, Marketing and Communications, ASAP
kmiller@strategic-alliances.org | +1 781-916-8652 x105

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