We saved our client several million dollars on a clinical trial that would not support a commercial market.

The Challenge

A high-profile biotech management team engaged us to prepare a comprehensive European landscape assessment and obtain KOL thoughts about their new oncology product from physicians not involved in their clinical trials. The landscape would include a patient-based revenue forecast, operating plan, budgets and KOL report to give an executable path forward which would be the basis for preparing and initiating a launch plan.

Solution

In preparing the revenue forecast and ops plan, we needed to clearly understand the patient flows from KOLs. The client viewed certain unique aspects of their product as extremely valuable and previously received confirmation of those perceptions from thought leaders associated with their registrational clinical trial. Our long track record in oncology became invaluable as we were able to quickly book face to face meetings with 20 top physicians unassociated with the client’s trials. Our interviews uncovered a difficult truth. In development of the revenue forecast model, we prepared a detailed patient journey map and discovered that a very high percentage of potential patients would not be available for therapy primarily due to the high number of clinical trials. The final outcome of the patient journey left the client with the prospect of a peak projected revenue forecast of approximately €7M

Needless to say, the board meeting and presentation of our findings were difficult. However, once the client realized the patient numbers were not adding up, they came to realize our assessment was accurate. The client had previously believed their KOLs enthusiasm without getting independent assessments but now had clarity based on real world feedback.

Results

Despite the difficult news, we still created significant value for the client:

• The client cancelled the current clinical trial they were running and saved over $50 million
• The client ultimately changed their regulatory strategy and life cycle plan based on the feedback from our thought leaders
• The new strategies led the client to eventually launch the product themselves