CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS

ADVISORY ARRANGEMENT

While most of our engagements are structured on a fixed-cost project basis, we also provide advisory services on an hourly basis to smaller clients whose needs evolve quickly and are less well-defined at the outset of the working relationship.

These assignments could include defining the steps necessary for validating a client’s science, securing strategic partnerships or attracting the scientific, clinical, and commercial expertise to advance the company to the next stage of development. It could also entail working sessions on potential competitive positioning, indication prioritization, the clinical development plan, or potential reimbursement and regulatory strategy. Our services would typically evolve over time and might include some desk and primary research, meetings with executives to review investor presentations, and identifying science and clinical thought leaders for key advisory roles.

PROJECT-BASED RESEARCH

Project-based research is generally well-suited to companies who need more robust assessments to support major decisions. These may include screening and prioritizing the indications for a platform technology; addressing complex reimbursement, market and regulatory questions to guide clinical trial planning; analyzing an external asset for possible in-licensing; or valuing an internal technology to prepare for strategic partnering. Our projects are typically several months long and include some or all of the following elements.
 
Qualitative Interviews

• In-depth interviews with key opinion leaders, prescribing physicians, allied health professionals, patients, patient advocacy groups, and other key external stakeholders. Typically these are hour-long, one-on-one discussions over the phone. They may also be mini-teleconference focus groups.

Quantitative Surveys

• Small- to large-scale web-based surveys across one or more countries to obtain statistically relevant responses. Qualitative interviews are typically undertaken beforehand to develop the on-line questionnaire and pre-test the survey.

Secondary Research

• A thorough search of all secondary sources including the Web, scientific literature, published research reports, and on-line databases for any information relevant to the project.

Forecast Modeling

• Interactive models based on input gathered from quantitative surveys for valuing the prospects of a product or technology, determining the trade-offs of enhancing one product attribute over another, or assessing how different outcomes could justify different price points.

Reimbursement Planning

• Interviews with payers to sort out the potential reimbursement challenges and opportunities with a product or to gather payer input to a client’s clinical trial plans and outcome studies. Projects may also include development of a detailed reimbursement strategy.