Company X has a long history playing in one of the main infectious disease areas and offers a portfolio of three products. At the time of engagement, two of the products were well-known but aging; one was newly launched with high hopes but had not lived up to the hypes.
Illuminera consultants were engaged to answer several critical questions concerning the future of Company X’s portfolio. Chief among them: what should be the relationship between the three products? How can the new product achieve outstanding performance but also benefit the two older brands? Should the three products share the same sales team? …
Rationalizing the Portfolio Structure
Based on market insights, Illuminera and the client team
concluded that the two legacy products had little chance of reversing the broad
trends towards newer and more powerful drugs. These two products,
however, also faced different situation which allowed one to be more assertive
in certain patient segments and the other one more to defend existing user
base. The newly launched product, on the other hand, indeed had huge
unfulfilled potentials. As such a portfolio strategy centering on the new
product but at the same time provides synergetic support to the two legacy
brands was adopted.
Finding the Most Effective Sales Model
Separated sales teams or combined team? To answer this
question, Illuminera consultants collected data on how physicians would
perceive and receive different sales models. The team also built real-world
cases to illustrate how other pharmaceutical companies fared under different
models. Comparing the pros and cons of the two models and their suitability
with different portfolio structure, Illuminera in the end recommended a
combined sales team structure.
Our recommendations were well received by the client and implemented faithfully. Our recommended strategy of focusing on the newly launched drug as well as combined sales model proved to be correct. According to the 2017 data, our client enjoyed phenomenal growth with the newly launched product. Indeed the new product was well on track to become a billion RMB brand. While the two legacy brands did not fare as well due to their own life cycle as well as some other issues, a combined sales model reduced the cost burdens on the two products as well.
For more information, please send an email to: adele.wu@illuminera.com
