SEPTMBER ISSUE

NEW AGE GUIDES:

Biotechnology Consultancies

Time is money in the corporate world. The ideal way for

companies to save both is to employ consultancy firms for

advice and help before venturing into new projects. Such firms

in biotechnology sector are an imminent field and offer a lot in

terms of value. A solid strategic plan is the foundation of a

good business plan. Biotechnology Consultancy (BC) directs

and facilitates strategic planning projects for companies and for

non-profit organizations.

There are numerous companies who are making a mark for

themselves in this niche segment. Some examples are

biotechnology business consultants, Campbell Alliance, Bilcare

Research and home grown Maharashtra Industrial and

Technical Consultants, popularly called as MITCON

pharmaceutical consultancy. These firms have been around for

quite some time, but of lately their importance is being felt by

everyone.

They cater to different industries such as pharmaceutical,

sugar and agro business, clinical research organization etc.

They perform various tasks depending upon the clients but

primarily help them in various ways.

In today’s payer-driven environment, gaining the right level of

market access can be very difficult. It is also critical to leverage

that access to generate commercial success. BC helps clients

secure their desired levels of market access and

reimbursement, optimize profitability through better pricing and

contracting, drive pull-through, and achieve commercial

success.

Bio consultants help commercial leaders to maximize the value

of their products. Early in development, they help decision

makers better understand a product's full commercial potential.

Through expert market assessment and commercial planning,

they help clients build solid foundations for commercial

success. Bio consultants help them plan and manage flawless

product launches and enhance revenue growth throughout the

product lifecycle.

It also offers the knowledge needed to properly assess

opportunities and make the right decisions at the business

development level. This is important to make the right deals at

the right times, to locate the opportunities and make sound

decisions quickly.

Crunching numbers to design a sales force is no major feat,

and several firms can do it. But it takes more than that to drive

true effectiveness and maximize the return on largest

promotional investment. It takes unique combination of market

insight, sophisticated quantitative skills, firm grasp of the

qualitative drivers of effectiveness, and proven ability to

design, deploy, train, and optimize sales forces. This is done

by these super specialized consultants.

When it comes to distribution for pre-launch or in-line products

in retail, specialty pharmacy, or hospital environments, the

expertise of bio consultancy comes to rescue. In

pharmaceutical and biotech industry distribution is much more

than getting the right products to the right places at the right

times. It also entails building effective working relationships

with the right channel partners, capturing useful insights from

the mountains of channel data that are available and moving

products smoothly and profitably.

Biotechnology Consultancies designs research studies, carries

out the research activities, analyzes the data collected, and

writes final reports involving primary research such as

customer surveys or focus groups, interviews of key opinion

leaders to identify significant market trends, competitive

intelligence gathering and analysis and market size and

segmentation analysis.

Such organizations make the job easier in many more ways

but on flip side there may be certain barriers for small and

medium enterprises. Few things to be kept in mind before

jumping onto any conclusion, the pace of their development

has been a bit slow as compared to the whole biotech sector.

These firms have been there for about 2 decades or so, but

their number is quite low. This indicates that most of the

businessmen don’t find it very lucrative business but then

positive side of the coin that in future there might be many new

comers. These firms are dependent on manufacturing units or

new projects and such new projects cannot come up

throughout the year, even project extensions are not very

frequent. Again affordability is an issue, as it is not possible for

all startups to take their help as they already lack in funds and

making sum investments diversification for advice may not be

feasible. One thing to be kept in mind here is that biotech

sector is a capital intensive sector and a new entrant in this

field may not always find it useful to take the help of these

consultancies just because of sheer budget constraints. So, in

such a case a bit of promotions and advertising may help these

consultancies to effectively register themselves in the mind of

their customers.

The advice or help of these consultancies makes the job easier

for new entrants but this doesn’t always guarantee hundred

percent success, there may be at times that in spite of all the

advices the venture may not end up fruitful.

Barring a few of these issues these consultancies are doing

quite well in USA. As far as India is concerned, a number of

such firms have come up in recent times and making a mark

for them. With the Sensex soaring and good times in view for

the biotechnology sector, the flourishing of biotechnology

consultancies is not far behind.

Compiled by
: Nivedita Singh (MBA-BT, Sem III)