CDMO Selection: Can We Eliminate The On-Site Audit? General consensus within the outsourcing community is that conducting on-site audits is a critical activity in CDMO selection. In June 2019 I wrote about the nuts and bolts of performing on-site capabilities audits in my article "How to Ace Your Next CDMO Capabilities Audit." In that article I strongly advocated for preparing for and making the effort to get out to meet top candidates in person, and readers agreed. However, during this pandemic, in-person meetings are currently not possible. As the only alternative, many of my colleagues complain about the virtual audit experience and what is being lost. Whatever we're doing now isn't working. I say, let's get through a few virtual audits and figure out ways to make them better. If we are successful, it will change the way audits are done from now on. In part 1 of this article, I will focus on the trade-offs, challenges, and opportunities in virtual vs. on-site capability audits, but the same approach is applicable for quality audits.