Even with the best planning, methodology, and assumptions, the negotiation process will reveal new problems and challenges over the life of the partnership. One may not be able to identify all the hazards in advance. Some problems that come up will prove existentially threatening to the partnership.
The engagement phase of PPP creation is, simply put, where mistakes tend to happen, as partners will inevitably encounter obstacles. Minimizing the degree and frequency of these mistakes and mitigating their effects is essential to success.
The power of governments in particular to address and overcome obstacles can be seen in the United States' PPP-based efforts to develop a vaccine-efforts which, as of this writing, appear to have paid off, with vaccines from several companies already being distributed under emergency-use authorizations. For biotech firms participating in the United States' Operation Warp Speed, the benefits of having an engaged government to mitigate obstacles were obvious. According to the New York Times, "when Moderna discovered this summer that an air handling unit for its factory could not be delivered over a weekend because of Covid-19 limitations on interstate trucking, [the Defense Department] stepped in. Warp Speed officials arranged a law enforcement escort to accompany the massive piece of equipment from the Midwest to its Massachusetts manufacturing plant." In another example, "the team again sprang into action when Moderna discovered that a specialized pump, needed to make the first batches of vaccine for the clinical trials, was marooned in a rail car and was not going to be delivered on time. Federal workers tracked down the train and rummaged through it until they found the pump."55
Problem solving and collaborative thinking are both essential elements of the engagement phase. Partners in a PPP must be able and willing to overcome logistical, technical, and organizational hurdles-but this process does not always look the same in every country.
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55LaFraniere, Thomas, Weiland, Gelles, Stolberg, & Grady. "Politics, Science and the Remarkable Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine," The New York Times. 21 November 2020.