Competitive Intelligence In The Pharma Industry: A Comprehensive Guide

The pharmaceutical industry is fiercely competitive, with companies constantly seeking to win in the marketplace. Pharma competitive intelligence is a decision-making tool, and it plays a crucial role in shaping the success of a company by outsmarting rivals and providing sources of competitive advantage. Technically, pharma competitive intelligence is a subset of pharma market intelligence, but with a focus exclusively on competitors.

What is Competitive Intelligence?

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the discipline of ethically collecting and analyzing information about competitors for seeking competitive advantages. The goal of CI is to understand what competitors are doing, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how one can use this information to gain a competitive advantage. Alongside providing insights, the strength of competitive intelligence lies in providing forward-looking foresights and predictive capabilities. A video tutorial on competitive intelligence is available from the University of Westminster.

Pharma Competitive Intelligence in Multiple Business Areas

CI is used to support decision-making in virtually all facets, functions, and business units of a pharma company, including strategy, R&D, marketing and sales, supply chain, business development and licensing, and corporate development. In this section, we describe the role of CI in different ‘business divisions’, and more specific roles are described in the ‘Major Applications of Competitive Intelligence‘ section.

CI in the Context of Pharma Strategy

At a strategic level, pharma CI is conducted through various management frameworks – the need is to have a high-level understanding of competitors and often involves converting granular intelligence into distilled macro insights for decision-makers. Some diagnostic questions to ask are:

• Are we seeing the wood for the trees?
• Are we reverse engineering the game plan employed by competitors?
• Are we able to see the alignment of strategy from the top of the biopharmaceutical organization to the bottom?

If your answer is ‘no’ to the above questions, then you are collecting information instead of conducting meaningful CI. The extensive use of standard strategic management frameworks and business school training has made decoding underlying strategy and game plans easier. However, CI groups need to be cognizant of such frameworks and be able to decipher such themes during intelligence gathering and analysis.

CI for Pharma Marketing and Sales

CI is usually conducted through the lens of marketing mix, and the predominant objective is to support various emerging and in-market brands Leveraging competitive intelligence from a framework of 4Ps (product, price, placement including digital, and promotion) provides opportunities to create winning brands. Intelligence in the context of market access, bidding, tendering, discounts and other access enhancement mechanisms is valuable to pharma decision-makers. Similarly, intelligence emerging from the structure and organization of sales forces and wider field force, messaging, and positioning via different channels augments decision-making by the brand teams.

CI in the Context Pharma Research and Development

CI for pharma R&D involves the investigation of scientific, clinical and medical activities, and requires deep expertise in the science and disease areas. Pharma is considered a leader in this segment and experts are of the view that R&D CI has matured over the years. Astute collection of data and evidence, superior interpretation of intelligence, better assessment of impact and the ability to convert scientific and clinical intelligence into meaningful business insights, thereby enabling one to materially add value to CI managers and end-users. Dual-skilled teams i.e., with a deep understanding of science and business tend to excel, however, such teams are scarce.

CI for Pharma Business Development and Licensing

Licensing and partnering deals are key elements of pharma growth strategy. CI services for pharma business development and licensing and often support both inbound and outbound deals. The usage of CI includes activities such as investigation of current competitive landscapes and most importantly future competitive landscapes, differentiation and value proposition versus the marketed products and assets which are in development etc. CI groups with investment, finance, and deal-making capabilities also assist with evaluation and due diligence activities to support deal-making.

CI in the Context of Pharma Manufacturing and Supply Chain

Cost optimization in pharma typically starts with axing reps and scientists. The next candidate in the pecking order of cost-cutting and efficiency gains is the ‘manufacturing and supply chain’, an area that is reasonably in vogue. The practice has been imported to the pharma sector from the oil/gas and auto sectors where the manufacturing and supply chain are well-streamlined and efficient. Considering the complexity of the pharma manufacturing and supply chain, the judicious application of CI in this context helps organizations obtain tangible cost savings. Manufacturing competitive intelligence is of paramount importance in the context of biosimilars and generic drug launches.

Similarly, pharma cost of goods sold (COGS) intelligence is another lever of value addition and optimization. Operations are one of the easy value drivers that most organizations resort to when they spin off business units to engineer outbound transactions or management promises free cash flow improvements to investors in earnings calls. Evidence suggests that inefficient operations are also the most common cause of the failure of pharma divestment transactions.

Invariably, the usage of competitive intelligence in a given pharmaceutical company at a given point depends on:

• The needs, necessities and urgency
• The understanding of the potential of competitive intelligence
• The organizational structure and design of a company
• Support from the management and stakeholders of the company
• Budget allocation for competitive intelligence

The 4 Levels of Usage of Competitive Intelligence in Pharma Companies

The usage of competitive intelligence is very common in the pharmaceutical industry – it has evolved from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ function in a multitude of organizations. However, some pharma organizations have been early adopters of the practice, most are ‘early or late majority adopters‘, and some have yet to leverage the practice to their benefit. Leveraging CI to assist with decision-making has been an eclectic practice in pharma and biotech companies. In this section, we describe how pharma companies are using competitive intelligence and this should serve as a basis for benchmarking, empowering and finessing the role of competitive intelligence in pharma and biotech organizations.

Service Provider

This is the elementary level of CI function in pharmaceutical companies. At this stage, CI functions are mostly tactical, research-oriented and focused on finding facts. The group works on a project basis to produce ‘intelligence on demand’ from internal stakeholders. It has a limited budget, headcount, and influence in the organization, and receives limited senior executive support. The function’s communications concentrate on project results that target a narrow audience, primarily the stakeholders who commissioned the project.

Contributor

At this stage, CI in the pharma sector is more than a tactical function. The unit concentrates on translating insights into implications and business recommendations. It leverages synergy from past projects from the same or different stakeholders, forms bodies of knowledge and has broad perspectives. The unit at this stage has active support from the senior marketer in the company as well as greater access to senior business unit leaders. However, business leaders set priorities. The CI budget exists outside the function’s control, and the group’s representation on the executive team and its exposure to the board are limited.

Advisor

This is the next level of competitive intelligence in the pharma sector. At this stage, senior executives stipulate informed and evidence-based decision-making. The CI function acts as an in-house consultancy in the organization. In addition to standard CI projects, CI team members demonstrate critical thinking and effective analytical skills, a willingness to challenge ideas and the status quo, and an understanding of R&D, sales (read how to leverage sales force intelligence in the pharma industry) and marketing. Most of the projects are asset or brand-centric. The CI team acts like a ‘sensing, learning and prescribing’ unit.

Partner

At this level, competitive intelligence functions as a strategic partner. The unit is focused on innovation, foresight, and predictive capabilities. CI usage goes beyond asset-centric decisions, i.e. the unit is involved at a corporate level decision-making, including product and portfolio strategy, strategic planning, licensing and partnering, M&A, employee engagement, manufacturing, supply chain, etc.

The CI team exerts significant control over the budget and is truly embedded in decision-making. The team is seen as a thought leader rather than a project executor or insights provider. The team has sound economic, strategic and corporate finance understanding, and has the ability (and credibility) to address critical business issues and provide top-class implementable solutions that are aligned with the organization and its stakeholders and shareholders.

Does Pharmaceutical Competitive Intelligence Add Value or Benefit?

Competitive Intelligence is a positive NPV Activity

Senior Competitive Intelligence professionals within the pharma sector predominantly concur that CI is a value-adding function. Naturally, they may exhibit a bias as the CI value proposition is the basis of their jobs – however, by employing a corporate finance framework, we have quantified the value of CI in numerous business scenarios in several restructuring and performance assessment initiatives.

The evaluations assessed the value added via the net present value (NPV) of CI projects while considering the investment made and the cost of capital. The outcomes of such assessments consistently demonstrate that competitive intelligence is a significant value generator i.e.,  a positive NPV activity. However, the extent of this value-add varies across the subsectors of the pharma industry – innovator companies tend to reap greater benefits from CI while generic companies witness more modest benefits. Consequently, it is critical for pharma companies to maximize the ROI of their pharma competitive intelligence engagements.

Business Case for Competitive Intelligence as a Loss Minimization Strategy

Nevertheless, the absence of a competitive intelligence function tends to have adverse effects on a pharma company, placing it at a disadvantage relative to its peers and competitors. As a result, the justification for implementing CI is rooted not only as a strategy to increase potential upsides but also as a strategy to minimize potential downsides (remember, we pay insurance to reduce the downside risks). Therefore, organizations must establish, at a minimum, an elementary competitive intelligence program to stay competitive and relevant in the marketplace.

The 6 Steps Process of Conducting Pharmaceutical Competitive Intelligence

The competitive intelligence process is a structured approach that assists pharmaceutical companies in meeting the objectives of the intelligence-gathering exercise. It involves identifying intelligence needs, developing an intelligence collection plan from various sources, and conducting primary research to fill in intelligence gaps. The collected intelligence is then processed, analyzed, and reviewed to inform decision-making.

1. Understand Intelligence Needs

The CI process begins with identifying and understanding the intelligence requirements. These requirements should be 1) in-line with the organization’s strategy and ethics, and 2) realistic. This stage involves understanding the objectives of the intelligence collection, their intended usage, and their application to impact business decisions.

2. Developing an Intelligence Collection Plan

Once the intelligence requirements are defined, the next step is developing a plan for the collection of intelligence. This involves breaking down the topics into specific questions and segregating them according to the types of sources that are likely to answer them. These sources generally include both – 1) secondary sources i.e., published information, and 2) primary sources i.e., information collected by interviewing knowledgeable subjects.

3. Leveraging Secondary Research

The information available in the published resources and various databases serves as the starting point in the pharma intelligence collection process. They help to answer various intelligence questions by providing insights and also help assess the need for primary research. Various sources such as databases, websites, regulatory bodies, industry news sites, and social media are some of the sources of secondary intelligence.

4. Conducting Primary Research

This step involves conducting primary research, also known as human intelligence gathering. This step is used to fill in any gaps left by the previous stages and to gain insights into future trends and developments and usually helps to gain insights that are beyond those available via secondary resources. The primary research methods for competitive intelligence are significantly different from those used for market research and use an array of elicitation techniques.

5. Processing and Analysis

The next step is the processing and analysis of the collected intelligence. Understanding the confidence levels of the intelligence gathered is also necessary at this stage. The analysis step is often crucial and separates good CI analyses from mediocre ones. The ability to join the dots, be knowledgeable of various frameworks of decision-making, and ability to convert findings into business implications are often required. Specifically with regards to the pharma industry, teams with dual-skilled consultants i.e., with both- a life sciences and business background or education tend to excel and materially affect the quality of competitive intelligence.

6. Delivery of Competitive Intelligence

The final step in the CI process is the communication and dissemination of collected intelligence. This involves discussing the findings and recommendations with the stakeholders and assisting them in using the collected competitive intelligence to inform decision-making.

Major Applications of Competitive Intelligence in Pharma Companies

Competitive intelligence plays a crucial role across pharmaceutical business functions by providing insights that inform strategic planning and operations. This section will explore the major applications of competitive intelligence across clinical trials, market landscape mapping, new product planning, forecasting, strategic decisions, regulations, sales tracking, launch planning, and engaging with key opinion leaders. The insights derived from such applications help pharma businesses calibrate their strategies and optimize decision-making in the face of marketplace complexities and uncertainties. While we have described the examples of pharmaceutical competitive intelligence discretely, in practice they are evolving into integrated insights and intelligence or traversing multiple business functions and areas.

1. Anticipating Competitor Strategies

Obtaining an early glimpse into potential moves by pharmaceutical competitors enables companies to proactively prepare and strategically respond. Predictive power is enabled by superior collection and analysis of intelligence where the imperative is to dig beyond surface observations and comprehend the underlying strategy of the competitors. Competitive intelligence offers several approaches to predict competitors’ future strategies and directions.

Analyze Past Behavior: Research (often secondary) how rivals have responded to past events and disruptions:

• What were competitors’ reactions when you previously launched a competing product?
• When facing pricing pressure before, did they lower prices or rely on value messaging?
• How have rivals historically pursued growth – organically, by M&A, through deals?

Response patterns may indicate competitors’ likely future strategic actions.

Leverage Primary Intelligence: Conduct primary research which is an immensely powerful tool that gives foresights and enables you to predict competitors’ strategic moves.

Modeling Strategy Scenarios: Run simulations of how competitors could respond to situations:

• What pricing moves could a rival make if you launch a competing product? How might those impact you?
• If facing an expiring patent, where might a competitor redirect R&D or investments?
• With new disruptive technology, how might incumbents adapt their strategies?

2. Monitoring Pharma Clinical Trials and Drug Pipelines

Clinical trial intelligence is a vital component of pharmaceutical competitive intelligence and it involves tracking competitor activities in drug development pipelines. Monitoring ongoing trials provides insight into which indications, formulations, patient segments, etc. competitors are pursuing, their progress through phases of clinical research and development and the potential timeframe to market launch.

There are several objectives that competitive intelligence teams have around clinical trial tracking and they can be more strategic as well as tactical:

• Identify prevalent pharma industry trends in terms of therapeutic areas attracting the most R&D investment
• Pinpoint new molecular entities (NMEs) in competitors’ pipelines that may disrupt the market upon approval
• Assess the likelihood of pipeline candidates successfully getting approval (PTRS)
• Determine if competitors are pivoting R&D strategies or expanding into new therapy areas
• Gauge estimated launch timeline for pipeline assets to prepare for counter strategies

Detailed clinical trial competitive intelligence gives pharmaceutical companies an advantage when strategizing about future market dynamics and scenarios. For instance, upcoming trial data readouts and regulatory submissions carry signals about how a competitor’s pipeline asset may impact the competitive landscape.

By overlaying clinical development timelines of competitor products vs. the patent expiry timelines of their own assets, pharma companies can also anticipate when products could face competition from generics or biosimilars assets. This integration of data is crucial for forecasting potential effects on market share and impact on product lifecycles.

In summary, monitoring clinical pipeline activities of rival businesses empowers better decision-making around drug portfolio planning, drug development, launch and R&D investments. Since the pharma and biotech sector is fundamentally driven by R&D, competitive intelligence on clinical trials helps pharma leadership answer key questions that impact brand or business strategy.

3. Analyzing Competitors and Pharma Market Landscape

Gaining a comprehensive view of the pharma competitive landscape is essential for competitor intelligence teams in pharma companies. Key activities for competitor analysis include:

• Researching product portfolios – Catalog all approved and launched products of leading competitors, noting key product attributes and metrics like MoA, clinical evidence, sales, market share, positioning, etc.
• Tracking new product launches – Identify newly launched competitor products, analyze launch success, and monitor sales ramp and uptake over time. Pay attention to the pharmacovigilance data of such drugs as well.
• Assessing sales and market share – Review historical sales trends, identify high-growth products taking share, and determine factors influencing share shifts.
• Profiling competitors – Develop intelligence dossiers on each competitor covering R&D strategy, investment, leadership, M&A appetite, financials, culture, and strengths/weaknesses.
• Analyzing deals – Follow merger, acquisition, licensing, and collaboration activity to infer asset preferences, business strategies and risk tolerance.
• Monitoring events – Attend or follow conferences, earnings calls, and clinical data releases for real-time intelligence.

Together, these activities provide a detailed map of the pharma market landscape that highlights opportunities, threats, and competitive differentiators. Competitor profiling and tracking should be an ongoing activity as the landscape evolves continuously. Advanced analytics and data visualization tools can help ingest multiple intelligence streams into dynamic dashboards for easy consumption by leadership teams. The insights help pharma businesses stay agile and refine strategies as market conditions change.

4. Forecasting Pharma Market Trends and Opportunities

In addition to monitoring the present, competitive intelligence teams in pharmaceutical companies are tasked with predicting future trends and identifying opportunities that will define the years ahead. Advanced forecasting techniques leverage various intelligence feeds, including:

• Clinical development – Assess industry focus on disease areas based on pipelines and trial starts (See analysis on how competition impacts biopharma R&D investments).
• Regulatory – Detect new health authorities policies or legislation on the horizon that may impact the market
• Technology – Follow cutting-edge or disruptive innovations that could enable new drug modalities
• Prescriber, Payers and Patients – Use surveys, and social media listening to identify shifts in patient attitudes and behaviors

By combining quantitative and qualitative inputs, data-driven models can forecast industry growth, new market segments, therapy area potential, and more. Statistical models and machine learning algorithms help remove biases that lead to inaccurate predictions. To supplement forecasting approaches, some pharma businesses conduct war gaming and simulation exercises. These experiential techniques gather cross-functional perspectives on potential market scenarios that emerge from disruptive events, new entrants, or unexpected competitor moves.

The future insight derived from forecasting and analysis empowers pharmaceutical leadership to place early bets in promising areas from both a pipeline and commercial perspective. Accurately predicting macro industry trends also aid portfolio planning and capital allocation decisions. While the pharmaceutical marketplace will always involve uncertainty, astute competitive intelligence functions provide companies with a directional view of the road ahead – arming them to preempt challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

5. Supporting Biopharma Companies’ Strategic Business Decisions

An agile pharmaceutical business needs competitive intelligence integrated with strategy and decision-making. Some of the areas where competitive intelligence supports include:

• Portfolio optimization – Intelligence on industry growth directions and competitive threats guides decisions on pipeline development, asset acquisitions, and product discontinuations.
• Pricing strategy – Intelligence on competitor pricing models and market elasticity helps set or adapt pricing for launch products to optimize market access and adoption.
• Commercial planning – Competitor launch playbooks, sales force sizing, and messaging are analyzed to tailor pharma product launch planning activities.
• Lifecycle management – Monitoring competitor tactics for maximizing product revenue helps strategize commercial activities over the brand lifecycle.
• Business development – Assessing competitor portfolios and strategies allows smart identification of partnership, licensing, or M&A opportunities.
• Countering competition – Analyzing past competitor product launches reveals strategies for undercutting or slowing competitor uptake for products addressing the same patient segments.
• Market withdrawal – Intelligence indicating decreased competitor emphasis on a market can support strategically winding down operations in that segment or alternatively provide opportunity when no one seeks to play.

In each of the above areas, competitive intelligence gives strategic decision-makers confidence by removing blind spots, testing assumptions, and highlighting options. Embedding CI workflow into core business functions ensures decision-making aligns with the dynamic realities of the marketplace.

6. Monitoring Regulatory and Policy Changes

The regulatory environment is a key driver of the value in the pharma industry, and it is absolutely crucial for any competitive intelligence team to monitor them diligently. Beyond regulatory, legislative and policy changes also rapidly shift the trajectory of product development and strategies in the pharmaceutical industry.

Key regulatory policy tracking intelligence should cover:

• New drug approvals – The standards, timelines, and processes for FDA/EMA approval directly impact the viability of pipelines. Tracking approval trends reveals shifts in the rigor of healthcare authorities.
• Labeling and indications – Watch for changes in allowable indication expansions, post-marketing requirements, marketing messaging, required disclosures, or eligible patient populations that alter product utilization.
• Patents and exclusivity – Patent analysis is a powerful competitive intelligence tool both at the drug discovery stage and at the end of product life.  Extension or reduction of protection terms changes the competitive outlook as more drugs become open to generics.
• Manufacturing and distribution – Production capacity intelligence, especially important for biosimilars and biologics drugs and new generics entrants, wider policy updates on issues like import rules, track and trace requirements, etc. affect supply chain operations.
• Marketing and sales – Any new laws on areas like off-label promotion, gifts, sampling, etc. impact how pharma companies can advertise and sell therapeutics.
• Price controls – Formulary restrictions, price ceiling policies, and reimbursement criteria from payers and government legislation influence affordability and revenue. The recent Inflation Reduction Act is a case in point.
• Safety and reporting – Changing mandates around safety, pharmacovigilance, disclosures, etc. alter risk and liability.

Any material changes in the above areas signal pharmaceutical companies may need to adjust business strategy and compliance practices. Proactively monitoring emerging proposals, bills, and policy initiatives allows modeling different outcome scenarios in effective decision-making.

Regulatory intelligence specialists help translate complex communications with healthcare authorities such as FDA and EMA, into meaningful strategic insights for leadership teams. Such intelligence is likely to impact the probability of success, expected revenue and operational impacts so companies can weigh options. Competitive intelligence on regulatory issues can provide opportunities to turn such directives and policies into new strategic opportunities.

7. Tracking Pharma Sales Performance and Market Share Intelligence

Monitoring competitor revenue and market share trends for marketed drugs provides vital signals about the relative competitiveness of pharma companies and their products. As new therapies launch and loss-of-exclusivity unfolds, market share actively shifts between rivals.

Robust pharma sales analytics competitive intelligence enable insights such as:

• Quantifying territory or regional gains and losses for key brands
• Determining which products are disrupting competitors’ blockbusters or vice versa
• Analyzing sales trajectories to predict revenue growth rates
• Identifying price competition driving share shifts between brand and generic
• Understanding prescriber and managed care loyalty influencing share
• Modeling effects of expanded indications or new formulations
• Tracking positive or negative impacts from safety issues

Beyond sales data, win/loss interviews and market research or intelligence gathering from physicians, payers, and patients help explain factors driving market share dynamics. Integrating quantitative and qualitative intelligence provides a multidimensional view of performance that guides better decision-making. For instance, share losses in a certain drug class may necessitate a strategy review to response plan, including pricing actions, promotional campaigns, or portfolio additions to regain momentum. Likewise, share gains may indicate opportunities to invest more aggressively in expanding success, whether through salesforce growth, maximizing brand potential, or acquiring complementary assets.

For marketed drugs, continuously tracking revenue, prescription volumes, and other performance benchmarks against competitors ensures strategic agility as market positions evolve.

8. Planning for New Pharma Product Launches

Gaining intelligence and insights around competitor product launches equips pharmaceutical companies to execute effective launch plans and life cycle management strategies. Key focus areas include:

• Positioning and messaging – Analyze how rival drug makers are positioning their brands and tailor messaging to accentuate points of differentiation and value.
• Prescriber marketing – Monitor competitor share of voice, campaign tactics, and adoption incentives to optimize promotional strategy.
• Pipeline sequencing – Align launch timing decisions to avoid going head-to-head with a major competitor’s rollout or reverse, depending on the strength of your own asset’s data
• Forecasting and production – Leverage competitive launch uptake data to accurately forecast demand and ensure adequate manufacturing capacity.
• Pricing strategy – Set initial price and lifecycle price adjustments based on anticipated competitor response, market sensitivity and acceptance.
• Market access – Develop value propositions for payers/protocols that address competitive offerings in the same treatment area.
• Life cycle management – Identify approaches competitors use to maximize revenue like new formulations, superior delivery, sustained delivery, combination products, indication expansion, etc. to inform lifecycle strategy.
• Risk evaluation – Conduct risk scenarios mapping competitor responses to different launch and promotion approaches to devise a counter plan or risk mitigation strategy.
• Launch metrics – Use competitive benchmarks for metrics like market share, script growth, and formulary status to set launch targets and key performance indicators.

Continuous monitoring from pre-launch through patent expiry is necessary to finesse strategies over the full brand lifecycle. Judicious use of competitive Intelligence transforms a product roadmap into a strategically optimized path to maximize patient reach and commercial success.

9. Engaging Key Opinion Leaders

Pharma key opinion leaders (KOLs) play an influential role in shaping perceptions, clinical practices, and drug adoption in the medical community. Their views directly impact the success of pharmaceutical products and companies. Competitive intelligence assists in devising effective KOL strategies:

• Identification – Use data analytics on factors like publications, research, speaking, and social media to identify relevant KOLs with breadth of influence in your disease area of interest.
• Relationship building – Monitor competitor outreach tactics and customize engagement approaches to foster authentic long-term partnerships.
• Messaging testing – Gather feedback from KOLs on product positioning, claims, and educational content to gain endorsements.
• Advocacy – Equip KOLs with tools and resources to organically advocate the brand through peer discussions and clinical guidance.
• Advisory Boards – Convene KOL forums to provide input on R&D programs, clinical trial design, and other strategic needs.
• Data sharing – Ensure KOLs receive early and exclusive access to compelling trial data and pipeline progress to shape positive perceptions.
• Ongoing value – Maintain engagement by involving KOLs in new research, content partnerships, and speaking opportunities tied to their interests.
• Insight harvesting – Debrief discussions and advisory projects to uncover product feedback, clinical practice trends, and unmet needs guiding R&D.

The level of resources and outreach invested in KOLs should align with their level of influence among prescribers, scientists, and payers in a given disease area. Competitive intelligence helps manage KOLs appropriately and also helps to learn how your rivals are managing KOLs, thus enabling you to refine your KOL engagement strategies.

Pharma Competitive Intelligence Tools and Software Solutions

With competitive intelligence becoming mainstream corporate activity, pharmaceutical companies now have access to sophisticated software solutions designed specifically for CI in the pharma sector. These CI tools provide end-to-end capabilities from data gathering to analysis and communication. When implemented effectively, they become a force multiplier, automating intelligence workflows.

Core Features and Capabilities of Pharma CI Tools

Leading pharma CI tools share common features that streamline compiling intelligence and deriving insights:

• Data Aggregation – Ingest and correlate data from disparate sources including news, clinical trials, financial reports, market research and more to create an integrated data asset.
• Alerting and Monitoring – Configure real-time alerts for news on competitors, clinical results, regulatory changes and other key events. Monitor chosen sources automatically.
• Central Database – A searchable intelligence database structured for pharma with taxonomy for competitors, drugs, trials etc. Simplifies intelligence management.
• Analysis and Visualizations – Embedded analytics like sales forecasts, opportunity scores, and prescriber share patterns. Visualizations make data patterns intuitive.
• Reporting and Sharing – Schedule reports and digests tailored to different business functions and teams. Collaborate via annotations and discussions.
• User Workflow – Custom views, dashboards, and workflows for users based on their intelligence needs and roles. Ensures alignment with tasks.
• Security – Role-based access controls, detailed audits, and integration with enterprise security platforms for protecting sensitive data.

Selecting the Right Pharma Competitive Intelligence Tools

When evaluating competitive intelligence software, pharma companies should assess options based on:

• User Experience – The platform needs to be intuitive and easy to use for global teams to adopt. Available training and support are very important.
• Configurability – Ability to build customized workflows, notifications, reports, and dashboards tailored to business needs.
• Data Connectivity – APIs and integrations available to ingest internal data from systems like CRM, market research, and clinical.
• Scalability – Cloud-based system that can flexibly scale with enterprise needs and global teams.
• Compliance – Validated regulatory compliance for features like access controls, auditability, and data handling.

Choosing the right solution is crucial to enable a shift from periodic CI to real-time embedded intelligence across pharma organizations.

Implementing Competitive Intelligence Programs in Pharma Companies

A competitive intelligence program can be developed and instituted in a variety of ways depending on the specific needs and resources. The 8-step process for implementing a pharmaceutical competitive intelligence program is described below:

1. Define Your Intelligence Needs: Before you start gathering data, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. This could include understanding who your competitors are, what their strategies are, how they’re performing, and what their customers think of them.
2. Identify Key Competitors: The first step in conducting competitive intelligence is to identify the key players in your industry. This includes both direct and indirect competitors.
3. Monitor Industry News and Developments: Staying up-to-date with industry news and developments is crucial for identifying emerging trends and potential threats. This could involve monitoring publications, regulatory updates, and industry events using newsletters, RSS feeds and Google Alerts.
4. Investigate Competitors: Investigating key competitors can provide valuable insights into their strategies. This could involve looking at their website, annual reports, investors material, earning calls, SEC fillings etc.
5. Leverage Technology: Technology can be a powerful tool for conducting competitive intelligence. Companies can leverage tools such as social media monitoring, web analytics, and keyword research to gain insights into the competition.
6. Develop and Maintain a Database: As you gather information, it’s important to store it in a way that is easy to access, update, and analyze. This might involve developing a database or using software or a platform designed for competitive intelligence collection.
7. Analyze your findings: Once the intelligence has been collected, it is analyzed to extract meaningful insights. This can involve analyzing using a variety of strategic frameworks, making comparisons, and drawing conclusions about the findings. This is a critical step – read more on how to effectively analyze competitive intelligence and assess implications.
8. Distribute Intelligence: Once you’ve gathered data, it’s important to distribute your findings to the relevant people in your company for them to act. This could involve creating email newsletters, reports, holding meetings, or using other forms of communication.

Red Flags of Subpar Pharma Competitive Intelligence Programs

• You see inconsistent, contradictory, and disjointed findings.
• You are not deciphering the underlying strategy of your competitors. For example, have you been told that company X’s strategy is along the Ansoff matrix, or BCG’s growth style, or marketing is ‘push or pull’ dominated, etc.?
• You are not understanding the commercial organization and resource deployment of competitors.
• You are not getting accurate field force or sales force numbers and related intelligence.
• Clinical trial intelligence lacks patient segmentation and insights on biomarkers.
• You are getting inadequate commercial, marketing, field force, and corporate strategy intelligence.
• You are not getting high-quality primary intelligence.
• Interpretation of collected intelligence and analyses is sub-optimal.
• Analyses lack predictive power, and you can’t foresee the activities of your competitors.
• Earnings call numbers are expressed in different currencies, and IFRS and US GAAP numbers are compared at parity.
• You might be ‘collating’ information that does not tell a coherent story.

Pharma Competitive Intelligence Conferences and Exhibitions

Industry conferences, exhibitions and events focused on pharmaceutical competitive intelligence provide a dynamic opportunity for continual learning. By participating in these in-person and virtual events, CI professionals and pharma leadership can discover the latest approaches, connect with experts, and benchmark best practices. Some of the notable CI conferences for the pharmaceutical industry include:

1. Pharma CI Conference (US and Europe)

The Pharma CI Conference is a premier conference that gathers pharmaceutical competitive intelligence executives from around the world. This conference stands out as the best and largest assembly of CI professionals in the field of pharmaceutical competitive intelligence. It provides a platform for attendees to stay at the forefront of industry trends and insights. The conference is held in the USA and Europe, offering a unique opportunity for networking, knowledge exchange, and exploring the latest developments in pharmaceutical competitive intelligence. The agenda covers various aspects of competitive intelligence in the pharma industry covering data integration, analytics, insights, primary research, ethics, and strategic applications at both product and company levels.

2. Pharma CiMiCon (Competitive and Market Intelligence Conference)

The Pharma CiMiCon is the leading business intelligence conference.  This event brings together experts in competitive intelligence as well as market intelligence and is specifically designed for professionals in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The conference covers the integration of CI for mining insights, analytics, primary research, visualizations, and operationalizing intelligence. Immersive workshops led by CI pioneers provide actionable frameworks and tactics.

Key Benefits of Attending CI Conferences

Participating in pharmaceutical competitive intelligence conferences offers multiple benefits:

• Learn cutting-edge techniques from CI leaders through case studies and presentations.
• Network with peers and industry experts to exchange ideas and build relationships.
• Interact with technology and services vendors to evaluate innovative offerings.
• Benchmark your CI program maturity relative to pharmaceutical leaders.
• Earn continuous education credits to advance professional development.
• Bring back new ideas and approaches to refine your company’s CI function.
• Stay on top of emerging trends from analytics to automation, to ethical practices.

Pharma Competitive Intelligence – Frequently Asked Questions

What is competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence (CI) refers to the process of collecting and analyzing information about competitors to gain a competitive advantage. It involves understanding the actions, strengths, and weaknesses of competitors and leveraging this information strategically.

How does competitive intelligence support decision-making in the pharmaceutical industry?

Competitive intelligence supports decision-making in the pharmaceutical industry by providing companies with a deeper understanding of their competitors and the market, which allows them to make more informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition. By leveraging competitive intelligence, pharma companies can develop optimal business strategies and enhance value for their stakeholders.

How pharma companies are using competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence is utilized in various facets and functions of a pharma company, including strategy, R&D, marketing and sales, supply chain, business development and licensing, and corporate development. It has evolved from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ function in many pharma organizations, and there are 4 levels of usage of competitive intelligence by pharma companies: Level 1: Service Provider, Level 2: Contributor, Level 3: Advisor, and Level 4: Partner.

How can a competitive intelligence program be implemented in pharma companies?

To implement competitive intelligence in pharma companies, one needs to define intelligence needs, identify and investigate competitors, monitor industry news, analyze findings, and disseminate intelligence to the relevant stakeholders for action.

What does the pharma competitive intelligence process involve?

The pharma competitive Intelligence process involves identifying intelligence needs, developing a data collection plan from various sources, conducting primary research, and processing and analyzing the collected intelligence to inform decision-making.

What are the major sources of the pharma competitive intelligence process?

Pharmaceutical competitive intelligence uses secondary and primary sources. Primary sources refer to information collected by interviewing knowledgeable subjects, while secondary sources include published information and data available in various resources such as databases, websites, regulatory bodies, industry news sites, and social media.

How can pharmaceutical companies utilize competitor clinical trial monitoring and pipeline tracking for competitive intelligence?

Public databases like ClinicalTrials.gov provide clinical trial data to enable competitive intelligence on drug development pipelines and timelines. This drug pipeline tracking intelligence gives valuable foresights into competitor activity with regard to product development.

What techniques help pharmaceutical businesses map the competitive landscape and track market share?

Activities like sales performance assessment, new product launch tracking, competitor profiling, and market share analysis collectively create a detailed competitive landscape map to guide strategy for marketed products.

Where does competitive intelligence inform key strategic decisions in pharma?

CI guides critical choices around portfolio optimization, pricing strategies, launch planning, brand support, lifecycle management, licensing, and effectively, competitive response planning – it has applications in all business areas of pharma and biotech companies.

Why are regulatory monitoring and policy tracking crucial?

Regulatory and wider healthcare policies are key elements of the pharma industry. Regulatory monitoring often provides insights into what is happening with a product while being reviewed by the FDA, EMA etc., when one can expect approval and what the label could be.

How can pharmaceutical businesses leverage competitive intelligence for product launch planning?

Competitive intelligence helps by allowing companies to benchmark to a leading marketed asset. Companies can learn messaging, positioning, engagement with prescribers, and resources deployed such as field force and sales force intelligence by the benchmark, and thus refine their own launch or improve the performance of their marketed products.

What is the role of KOL relationship building and advocacy in competitive intelligence?

Engaging key opinion leaders shapes positive perceptions, gathers insights about the pros and cons of the drug vs competitors, and accelerates the adoption of products through influential advocacy.

References

• Nanette J. Bulger (2016) The Evolving Role of Intelligence: Migrating from Traditional Competitive Intelligence to Integrated Intelligence, The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs, 18:1, 57-84.
• Pellissier, R., & Nenzhelele, T. E. (2013). Towards a universal competitive intelligence process model. SA Journal of Information Management, 15(2).
• Nikolaos T, Evangelia F. (2012). Competitive Intelligence: concept, context and a case of its application. Science Journal of Business Management. (2): 1-15.
• Aspinall, Y. (2011). Competitive intelligence in the biopharmaceutical industry: The key elements. Business Information Review, 28(2), 101–104.
• Calof, J. L., & Wright, S. (2008). Competitive intelligence: A practitioner, academic and inter-disciplinary perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 42(7/8), 717-730.
• Badr A, Madden E, Wright S. (2006). The contribution of CI to the strategic decision-making process: empirical study of the European pharmaceutical industry. Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management. 3(4):15-35.

BiopharmaVantage specializes in providing premium quality competitive intelligence services and wider decision-making services to pharma, biotech and diagnostics companies. If you would like to explore how we can assist, then please contact us.