Strategy Consulting
Drug Development Strategy
We help drug developers make the right choices for their drug and platform developments.
Fundamentally, strategy is choice. Successful teams make clear choices about what they will and will not do and communicate them clearly to effectively plan and execute.
What Strategy Is NOT
Most teams confuse strategy with a goal, plan, or a mission / vision statement. Goals are something you wish to achieve. Planning occurs after you have defined your strategy. Mission statements explain what motivates us in the present moment. Vision statements define what success or winning looks like in the future. None of these things by themselves is a strategy because:
- They tell us nothing about where we choose to compete or how we will achieve a competitive advantage.
- Does not explain capabilities or management systems.
- Goals, mission, and vision statements are merely parts of a greater whole.
- A strategy cannot be defined by its individual parts.
The Challenge
There are an infinite number of ways to build a strategy. Competitors may share the same goal but leverage different sets of capabilities and competencies to achieve success. Without a clear approach to build your product that aligns with your unique set of core strengths, you risk burning time, resources and capital on activities that delay your entry into the clinic. We work with you to leverage your core competencies to build an operating system that brings your strategy to life.
Our Approach
We begin with the end in mind to get a clear picture of what you wish to achieve and why. We then use a blend of strategic frameworks and logic to clarify your product characteristics, value drivers and competitive offerings. Coupled with the insights obtained from your competitive landscape, we can explore untapped market spaces that could expand patient access and commercial viability.
The Strategic Choice Cascade
The Framework
Five choices. One framework. One iterative process.
Blue Ocean Strategy: Value Innovation
Where impact and cost efficiency unlock new market opportunities.
In drug development, many innovators get trapped in “red oceans” where highly competitive companies fight over the same patients, price points, and treatment standards. Blue Ocean strategy identifies and creates “blue oceans,” untapped market spaces where the industry rules are still undefined, making competition irrelevant.
Value Innovation is the foundation of Blue Ocean thinking. Applied to drug development, it is the simultaneous pursuit of higher patient value and lower development costs. Instead of choosing between utility and affordability, value innovation integrates both, breaking the traditional value-cost trade-off.
In early development, every dollar and decision shapes your future clinical and commercial path. By applying Blue Ocean’s Four Actions Framework we explore ways to:
This structured strategic process not only helps decrease development costs but also reveals opportunities to enter uncontested market spaces.
Our Process
How We Build Your Strategy
Discovery
We discuss your needs, goals, and current strategy. Then we map the knowledge gaps to refine the existing strategy or build one from the beginning.
Landscape Analysis
We conduct an early-stage competitive assessment of publicly available resources to gain insights about which products are on the market or in development for your chosen indication and patient population.
Strategy Canvas
We graph the value drivers across your competitive landscape to understand where competitors converge, overinvest, and ignore value. Then we explore ways to break away from the competition by creating divergence in our value profile.
Strategy Design
We build a Strategic Choice Cascade with your specific integrated set of five choices, based on the development goals, chosen playground, unique selling proposition (USP), operating system, and governance metrics.
Explore New Markets
In early development, every dollar in decision shapes your future clinical path. We explore ways to simultaneously pursue higher patient value and lower development cost by applying Blue Ocean Strategy frameworks.
Deliverables
What You Receive
Strategy on a Page: example
Frequently Asked Questions
Build Your Strategy
Every development program is unique. Let’s discuss your goals and find the right path to achieve success.
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