Biopharma & Medtech Strategic Opportunity Assessment

Research & development is the heartbeat of the pharmaceutical industry. However, not all opportunities, no matter the medical benefit, have equal or viable commercial value. The evaluation of the commercial benefit of potential opportunities at various stages of drug discovery and commercialization has significant uncertainty. Foster Rosenblatt consultants are aware of the uncertainties and assist clients to assess and evaluate opportunities systematically and comprehensively, using a range of qualitative and quantitative research techniques. The classic questions that we are expert at addressing include “are there any unmet needs in the marketplace”, “how valuable is this potential new product,” “how large is the market opportunity,” “what does the current and future competitive landscape look like,” and “what is the likely demand for this product.” To assist clients we help define, evaluate and plan for different scenarios, conduct quantitative & qualitative war games, and establish decision frameworks for these multifactorial decisions.

Biopharma & Medtech Forecasting

Foster Rosenblatt provides advanced predictive analytics and forecasts that quantify future performance of products and markets. Our forecasting experts strategically assess opportunities for markets, brands & business units, accurately forecast units and/or patients for brands & markets, value assets & transaction support for both the sell & buy side, and characterize & quantify risk under conditions of uncertainty.

Our Approaches: Epidemiology-based modeling is utilized for newer or fast changing markets, to better understand the patient and utilization cascade. Patient flow models apply simulation techniques that follow patient cohorts over time & under changing circumstances. Our unique demand-based methods and models are used for established markets or brands, focusing on statistical time series methods & insightful analog selection. Modeling uncertainty is a service we provide where we build dynamic simulators that allow “what if” gaming, scenario optimization & Monte Carlo analyses.

Typical Use Cases: Strategic assessment of opportunities for markets, brands & business units; accurate forecasting of units and/or patients, simulation of markets with computer-based scenarios; characterization & quantification of risk under conditions of uncertainty; defining, evaluating and planning for different scenarios; forecasting products in early & late stage development, forecasting launch brands for first 18-24 months, forecasting in-market products for growth or LOE stages.

Pricing & Market Access

This practice supports clients across all therapeutic areas navigate the payer environment in order to secure optimal access at appropriate prices.

Our experts characterize the essential & actionable payer landscape issues to determine product pricing & market access strategy & tactics. We conduct conjoint and discrete choice research to understand the impact of pricing options. Our techniques include Van Westendorp to determine price sensitivity and Gabor-Granger to assess a customer’s likelihood to purchase. We specialize in oncology drug reimbursement mechanisms and understand the nuances in both the private and public payer environments, and when a drug is self-administered or incident to a physician visit. We are very familiar with the many initiatives installed to help contain some of the costs associated with oncology care, such as including site of care strategies that direct care to the least costly option, dosing optimization to eliminate waste associated with partial vials, education and emphasis on palliative care, and quantity limits and more frequent reauthorizations.

Biopharma & Medtech Commercial Analytics

This practice helps our clients understand the motivations, behaviors and influences of key participants that affect the use and purchase of life sciences products.

We provide four primary services in commercial analytics. These are (i) research and understanding of promotional sensitivity in a given area, (ii) research and acquisition of deep knowledge of customer motivations & behavior, (iii) design and building of scenario / “what-if” models for brands & portfolios and (iv) optimization of ROI on promotional spend.

Physician Analytics: We conduct studies that address the issues of marketing mix, response modeling, segmentation, targeting, driver analysis, co-pay cards, affiliations & indexing and influence network mapping.

Managed Care Analytics: We perform work that provides insights into tier trade-off, segmentation and impact analysis. And we provide metrics and interpretation for share, claim costs, revenue & profits, age, gender, OOP & distribution, new starts, continuation, rejection & reversal, length of Tx and compliance & persistency.

Patient Analytics: We deliver deep understandings in matter of the patient journey, segmentation, impact analysis, new starts, continuation, switch, rejection & reversal, length of therapy and compliance & persistency.

Biopharma & Medtech Strategic Market Research

Foster Rosenblatt provides primary market research that creates an in-depth understanding of the drivers and trends that characterize commercial opportunity for life sciences therapeutics, diagnostics and devices. We conduct qualitative & quantitative research insights for physicians, payers & patients.

Qualitative Research: We conduct in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus groups and advisory boards for research that requires deep content findings with smaller sample sizes. Our moderators are always Foster Rosenblatt team members. We are knowledgeable industry veterans & technical experts in the subject matter being researched able to augment our use of structured interview guides with informed and nuanced probes that provide enhanced depth of insight. Our professionals have a general expertise across the commercial, clinical, scientific and regulatory aspects of therapy area who are able to have “peer-to-peer” discussions with other technical professionals. From a commercial perspective, we are professionals who are able to conduct financially technical interviews and are experienced in the unique objectives of both the buy-side and sell-side.

Quantitative Research: We provide global quantitative research services that provide statistical decision-support information about key research questions. Using larger sample sizes we employ conjoint analysis and discrete choice methods to determine how different product/service/portfolio attributes are valued and tradeoff decisions are made. Our Marketing Scientist professionals have specific expertise in commercial analysis and strategy.

Typical Use Cases: Therapeutic landscape analysis, quantifying market and product opportunity to support in/out licensing and acquisition, patient journey studies, ATU and tracking studies, physician & patient segmentation, brand performance tracking, pricing and market assess strategy

Biopharma & Medtech Brand & Business Unit Strategy

We deliver a broad and deep array of brand and business unit strategy services that range from specific customer insights to cross-disease engagement planning.

On the brand-level, we can help you understand the needs of your customers, what challenges they face and what solutions would most benefit them. Based on qualitative and quantitative research, our work provides attitudinal and behavioral segmentation showing what customer groups will be most receptive to your messages and products. We help craft effective messaging through creative concept testing, linguistic research and qual/quant message testing. And we deliver positioning support services that identify where your product or a competitor’s product may fit in the minds of your customers, and thus, where you can capitalize on market “white space.”

On the business unit level, we can help you frame the strategic issues that define success for the therapy area or geography. The Foster Rosenblatt business unit strategy approach focuses on driving a specific business to full economic potential. We support the annual planning process as well as any special transformative initiatives. We help you make strategic choices and drive change through a set of actions that serve customers better than the competition.