Case Studies

Building a Management Team for Incongruent Launch & Hiring Timelines

Peter Zaudtke
Jul 13, 2021
  • Europe
  • Strategy
  • United States of America
Case Studies

Building a Management Team for Incongruent Launch & Hiring Timelines

Peter Zaudtke
Jul 13, 2021
  • Europe
  • Strategy
  • United States of America

This biopharma was 18 months from their desired launch date. With no expert team and not enough time to fully understand the different labor laws across varying European regions. So, we devised and helped deliver the right strategy that met all their commercial and regulatory needs. We also bought the project home within the initial timeline.

The Challenge we were set

We were approached for intial discussions by a biopharma company venturing the European market. They believed that they were well positioned to initiate plans for a product launch within 18 months.

However, as they indicated their plans, it was quickly realized there were some challenging and potentially problematic timelines ahead. One of the key challenges was that hiring in Europe can be a complex, risky and costly process. Especially when taking into account local labor laws. It is worth noting that, sometimes, it can take up to a year to hire the right candidate for the role in Europe.

This biopharma needed a partner with European experience to serve as interim management as soon as possible. Before their launch timeline was seriously affected.

Solution we provided

We worked with the client to conducted a mini gap assessment to understand perceived key weaknesses and scope out their proposed launch timeline.

Our gap assessment highlighted that a number of key functional areas wouldn’t be able to hire management teams in parallel to the proposed launch timelines. This intelligence enabled us to present a strategy of how we could support the company to move forward and adhere to the intial aspirations for launch within the 18 month period.

Putting plans into action

Quickly we were able to align the objectives of the project team and all key stakeholders. We devised the right strategy for the client to build an on-demand management team. The on-demand management team were able to take care of all crucial regulatory and market access functions. They were also flexible enough to deal with many other needs that arose.

Our own European management team reflected a scaled down organization. The team was sufficient enough to launch across western EU markets for less than half of the proposed FTE cost. They were also able to operate and deliver in a significantly shorter timeline.

Our on-demand management team provided this biopharma with the experienced management of recognized local market experts and leaders. We were also able to provide Regulatory and PV/Med Info services that were managed locally to satisfy national regulations. The whole team worked at a pan EU level to ensure accuracy, consistency and manageability.

The initial results

We were engaged with this client for a two and a half year period. The on-demand management role allowed the client to continue to evolve and grow internal capabilities and functionality. All of this was achieved while sticking to the initial launch timeline.

As Solem is the organization that is hiring the on-ground, on-demand, localized team, we are able to de-risk the hiring process for our clients. This project procedure illustrates how advantageous it can be for companies as it accelerates the establishment of management teams and decreases that risk often seen within Europe.

The benefits of talking to Solem

We have local experts and teams of people on the ground all over Europe. They are all familiar with the nuances of each European country when it comes to commercialization and regulatory affairs within the Life Science industry.

If you are a biopharma business, considering venturing into Europe and working to tight deadlines or with limited resources, contact us today for an initial conversation to see how we can create a bespoke solution to meet your businesses requirements.

  • Peter Zaudtke

  • Principal

Peter is responsible for leading all our operations related to client projects. He developed many of the international capabilities Solem possess whilst CFO and VP of Operations for a boutique oncology biotech, where he was responsible for the day to day operations of both the newly established US HQ and the EU subsidiary he opened.