Pharma Business Development and Licensing (BD&L) activities covering pharmaceutical licensing and partnering are integral to the growth strategy of pharma and biotech companies and their pipelines. In the evaluation of attractive assets for pharma partnerships, a company considers a multitude of factors – competition is one of the critical ones. In this article, we describe the level of competitor analysis and competitive intelligence that pharma BD&L, search and evaluation and opportunity assessment teams, should be cognizant of for in-licensing deals.
Current Competitive Landscape for Pharmaceutical Licensing
It is obvious but essential to know the current competition – this constitutes the base level of competitor analysis and associated intelligence that business development groups need to have. This level of intelligence helps to understand current players, markets and segments targeted by them, their product attributes, differentiation, positioning, and so on.
Future Competitive Landscape for Pharma In-licensing
Pharma and biotech assets take a few years to reach the market. For example, if one is licensing an asset in Phase 2, and it is likely to take 3-4 years for that asset to reach the market, then what is of paramount importance is ‘what will be the competitive landscape in 3-4 years?’ A rigorous and high-quality ‘future competitive landscape’ enables deal-makers and assessment teams to understand how other players are developing their assets, what markets they are targeting, what are their differentiations, how big are the clinical trials, when trials will end, what have been the results of the trials so far, when one can expect their products to be approved etc.
Expected Number of Biopharma Competitors in the Future
Based on the above approach, it is also pragmatic to estimate the likely number of competitors on a risk-adjusted basis – this parameter seamlessly flows into the rNPV models and makes subsequent valuation reflective of the expected competition.
Evaluation of Pharma Assets: Looking Beyond Databases
Generally, databases help to find assets and their stage of development but to make them more valuable for deal-making, deep-dive research and analysis from multiple sources are required – such assessments help to make an informed decision and de-risk deals.
BiopharmaVantage is a specialist healthcare consulting firm that specializes in providing competitive intelligence to support business development, licensing, and partnering services specifically for the pharma and biotech sectors. If you would like to explore how we can assist you, then please contact us.