Case Study:

Therapeutic Category Assessment

Situation

Our pharmaceutical client was developing an overarching corporate approach for its anti-viral therapy franchise. Although it had significant success in select areas, it felt that a comprehensive understanding of the viral market would help leverage its therapeutic strength and prioritize investments for best product concepts.

Client Need

Putnam was asked to provide a strategic assessment of the market potential for all virally infectious diseases over the next 5-10 years. This included:
  • Evaluating commercial, scientific, and clinical trends, developing an environmental timeline, and explaining the implications of each trend as it relates to the client's therapy strategy
  • Defining anti-viral potential by analyzing virus characteristics, segmenting the markets appropriately, and identifying the most attractive segments to pursue
  • Detailing product and therapy concepts that would have the most promise based on unmet medical needs, commercial considerations, and the external environment

Putnam's Role

Putnam conducted a rigorous research campaign to collect all of the relevant commercial, clinical, and scientific information for 36 distinct viruses. In analyzing this data, we employed a consistent analytical approach to determine trends and evolution, existing products and pipeline compounds, unmet needs, and market forecasts for each virus.

We developed a market evolution framework to present our analysis. Through the framework, we were able to show the current and potential states of each virus based on parameters of market growth and dynamics, clinical practice, scientific advancement, competitive landscape, and the regulatory/reimbursement environment. Our framework provided a clear picture of distinct viruses, classifying each as either growing, declining or unchanging.

To determine which diseases had the most potential for the client, we created commercial forecasts based on patient population, treatment access, diagnosis practices, disease severity, unmet needs, and market conditions. This resulted in detailed market information for all viruses with rationale regarding characteristics, epidemiology, available treatments, and mortality rates.

Recommendations

We presented to our client a complete assessment of all the viruses, segmenting them into three categories: viruses esteemed primary opportunity, those with adjunctive potential, and those that held little current interest. Collaborating with the client's extended cross-functional team, we prioritized the client's viral product concept development in terms of patent potential, disease severity, unmet needs and market conditions.

Client Benefits

Putnam's extensive viral trend evaluation, market definition and success factor assessment provided a solid foundation for our client's anti-viral therapy strategy development. Our client was able to effectively:
  • Find new opportunities beyond conventional agents
  • Identify enabling technologies in new areas
  • Propose best opportunities to maximize competitive position and profitability from the infectious disease franchise
  • Shape strategy to pursue quality licensing opportunities
  • Define investment priorities over the next five years that will deliver the portfolio of the future

← back