Biocon – Case Assignment Questions Essay

1. Assuming Biocon receives blessing for BIOMAb. should it establish the drug instantly or carry on stage 3 tests before launch? Elaborate the assorted elements of your action program. If Biocon receives blessing for BIOMAb. the direction squad will necessitate to carefully see what the best class of action is traveling frontward. If the company elects to establish the drug instantly. they will be able to hold the first mover advantage. making the market before their closest rival. Erbitux. BIOMAb will besides be able to set themselves on the map as they would be the first of all time. proprietary drug developed and marked by an Indian house for Indian patients. The Indian regulative governments may besides do a drawn-out Phase 3 test due to their deficiency of experience with conveying a proprietary drug to market. as evidenced during BIOMAb’s Phase 2 tests. However. even with all of the above listed considerations in head. Biocon should carry on the stage 3 tests before establishing the BIOMAb. BIOMAb is a superior merchandise to Erbitux. as shown in the 100 % response rate when combined with chemo and radiation therapy.

There are besides fewer side affects. a more patient friendly intervention program. and BIOMAb will be able to offer the drug at a discounted monetary value. Even if BIOMAb is non able to be the first drug to the market. they will be able to do up for those possible loses in the long tally. BIOMAb will be come ining this market place for the first clip. and the company will desire to come in the market with as strong of a message as possible. BIOMAb is come ining this market for the long tally. and get the better ofing any perceptual experiences of cutoffs. deficiency of quality. or anything less than cutting border will last good beyond the life of the BIOMAb merchandise. There are merely 300 oncologists in this market Biocon can non afford to lose. While expecting Phase 3 blessing. Biocon can turn over out its direct gross revenues force. offering its suite of generic oncology drugs. This waiting period will give the gross revenues force an chance to develop roots in the market place and to raise consciousness of BIOMAb before it is even on the market.

The Phase 3 blessing procedure will function as an advantageous incline up clip so that Biocon is to the full prepared to come in the market place on better terms with BIOMAb. This clip will besides enable Biocon to better develop the substructure they will necessitate to optimise its direct distribution channel. Biocon is a new participant in conveying a new drug to the market and they will desire to guarantee that the quality of their merchandise is maintained from the fabrication floor into the doctor’s office. Assuming that BIOMAb so loses its first mover advantage. its value proposition will be its consequences. which are dependent on decently controlled merchandise. Biocon wants to go a lasting fixture in this market and the company needs to make everything in its power to present its value proposition of invention. quality. and affordability.

1. How large is the current and future market chance in BIOMAb?

The current market chance that Biocon is presently aiming with BIOMAb is composed of the Head and Neck malignant neoplastic disease patients within India. More specifically. Biocon is focused. in the short term. on those Head and Neck malignant neoplastic disease patients that can afford to pay. estimated at 1. 900 patients. These patients will be the 1s officially marketed to. but given the Indian’s markets preponderance for utilizing drugs “off the label” . the unofficial market can be target at all malignant neoplastic disease patients in India that presently able to afford intervention. 7. 114 patients. Given India’s continued economic growing rate ( 9 % yearly ) and of all time spread outing population base ( 1. 4 % ) . all of the predating Numberss are certain to turn in the comparatively short term. The compounded impact of these different rates will do these India based estimations to turn exponentially twelvemonth over twelvemonth.

In the long tally. BIOMAb in India is merely the tip of the iceberg. CIMAB and Biocon’s current joint venture is to develop and market the molecule on the Indian subcontinent. If Biocon is able to thoroughly manage and develop all facets of the supply concatenation ( fabrication. distribution. gross revenues. selling. etc ) . Biocon would hold good ground to travel back to the negociating tabular array with CIMAB. The success of CIMAB’s other spouse. YM Bioscience. is non guaranteed and there is no ground that Biocon can non unseat them in the long tally. If Biocon is able to accomplish this. along with the Phase 3 tests. the world-wide Head and Cancer would be unfastened to the company. to state nil for the “off label” prescriptions. Given the world-wide population growing. economic enlargement. and aging populations. the long-run market for BIOMAb is practically illimitable.

3. Who is the purchaser for BIOMAb? What is the determination doing unit in this instance? What are the benefits that each member of the determination doing unit seeks from BIOMAb?

The purchaser for BIOMAb is ( are ) the income supplier ( s ) of the household. whose member ( s ) has ( have ) been affected by caput and cervix malignant neoplastic disease or another indicant. since off-label use is really common in India. The construction of India’s wellness attention system is such that it is estimated that 95 % of BIOMAb’s patients ( stop users ) are traveling to be self-paying. Therefore. the cost of intervention will be transferred to the gaining member of the household. Adult patients have the right to do intervention determinations for themselves. so patients and their households are the determination shapers for BIOMAb in this instance. As the instance states. the oncology physicians are the chief influencers. as they diagnose and make ultimate recommendations to their patients as to how extended the intervention should be. The benefits that each member of the determination doing unit ( i. e. patients and their households ) seeks include BIOMAb’s effectivity in the intervention of caput and cervix malignant neoplastic disease in concurrence with wireless and chemotherapy. minimum side-effects ( immediate side effects. every bit good as those that might be associated with long-run usage ) . and drug’s affordability.

Should phase-2 tests be conducted by Biocon for other indicants. the patients will besides desire to seek same benefits from the drug for other types of malignant neoplastic disease. Based on the information provided in the instance. BIOMAb’s effectivity and minimized side effects are a given. After all. phase-2 tests proved that the tumour was killed 100 % of the clip when the drug was used in combination with wireless and chemotherapy. Furthermore. unlike competition. BIOMAb did non bring forth tegument roseolas because due to the drug’s alone expression. An of import factor will be affordability. Wealth distribution is really uneven in India. and 1/4 of the nation’s population earns less than the government-specified poorness threshold of $ 0. 40/day ( Wikipedia ) . The patients. every bit good as their physicians. will desire to do certain that they can afford to finish intervention to guarantee best possible result.

BIOMAb has a enormous advantage in this class compared to Erbitux. as it calls for a definite ( i. e. six-dose ) intervention rhythm ; entire intervention cost can therefore be efficaciously quantified. Another benefit that patients will be seeking is the ability of BIOMAb’s gross revenues reps to educate them and their households. Although this is non one of the drug’s actual benefits. it will be a important factor since patients’ face clip with physicians and specializers is really limited in India. Pre-educating terminal users and their households on the benefits. side effects. and other particulars of the drug will guarantee that oncologists’ clip with each patient is maximized.

4. Develop a elaborate launch program for BIOMAb. Supply your principle for the merchandise portfolio. pricing. channel. and communicating determinations. Biocon’s launch of BIOMAb is complicated by several factors. The first of these is the deficiency of stage 3 clinical tests. which would theoretically supply more grounds of the drug’s efficaciousness and safety on a larger patient pool. This is complicated by the fact that BIOMAb’s rival comes in the signifier of a drug called Erbitux. which does hold phase 3 tests completed and planetary acclamation. Biocon’s fright is that if they do non establish before Erbitux. they will lose the first to market advantage they feel necessary to win. In this instance Biocon should take the clip to finish stage 3 clinical tests on the footing of what patients and their households expect from a malignant neoplastic disease drug. It was already stated that Erbitux had world-wide credence due to holding extended tests non limited to caput and cervix malignant neoplastic disease that proved it was both safe and effectual.

In the eyes of the consumer the individual most of import concern here is that the drugs are traveling to work and that decease can be avoided. Bing first to market has the hazard of offering merely a impermanent advantage until Erbitux really becomes available. At this point if phase 3 tests are eventually completed and the consequences are non favourable there would be terrible consumer recoil and perchance action from the authorities. Finally. Biocon mentioned being able to appeal to doctor’s via bing relationships in order to acquire their merchandise sold. Realistically. physicians care more about clinical tests as a agencies of make up one’s minding what drugs to offer. By traveling frontward with stage 3 tests Biocon would hold existent informations to give these doctor’s the “hard sell. ” The scheme is non merely to maximise net income. but build a sustainable trade name built on trust and consequences in the pharmaceutical industry. Building upon that is the inquiry of whether or non to sell generics in add-on to BIOMAb and when to sell them. The statement given was that selling generics would give the gross revenues force good experience and at the same clip construct a solid gross base.

Biocon should so take this path for these really grounds. This will let them to still convey in gross while the stage 3 tests of BIOMAb take topographic point. Once the tests are complete. selling them alongside BIOMAb will let them to capture more of the market when in forepart of physicians who want to hold offerings for monetary value witting patients. On top of the first two concerns is the issue of monetary value and what impact it would hold on both market size due to affordability and sensed quality in comparing to Erbitux. Biocon. after verification of the inordinately high effectivity of BIOMAb should bear down $ 6000-7000 per dosage or instead whatever would be tantamount to a few stairss more than Erbitux. Biocon’s CEO desires to construct a trade name non based on low monetary value but instead the value provided by the merchandises. The hinderance to this path of class is the Indian cultural perceptual experience of what the monetary value should be and the fact that many people can non afford such cost. However. Biocon is already good cognizant that their effectual mark market is little so for those people the monetary value is potentially less of import.

However. Biocon can market the fact that it is a six dose intervention way instead than indefinite doses like Erbitux so in the long term people save money. Additionally they can acquire originative here and offer something like Walmart’s layaway plan. Patients can hold to pay in equal installments up until their dosing twenty-four hours. On that concluding twenty-four hours when payment is received they are administered the dosage. Payments for the following dosage Begin and the rhythm repeats until the dose clip. Additionally. Biocon is concerned about the gross revenues methodological analysis with respects to traveling through the usual channels of CFAs. jobbers. and pharmaceuticss or selling it straight to physicians. By traveling through the typical channels they have the advantage of making more physicians who have bing relationships with certain Sellerss.

In this instance though. it would suit more with their overarching scheme to sell direct. The higher cost of the drug would be less evident when non being sold side by side with rival drugs through a pharmaceutics or jobber. This would besides let Biocon to sell the generic drugs and BIOMAb side by side as a complete market solution for monetary value witting people. The nest eggs from non holding a jobber can be passed on to the physicians via multi-patient price reductions or similar. Finally. the quality of the merchandise could be ensured since BIOMAb requires such delicate handling. This is of import for the Biocon trade name image traveling frontward as there can be no faux pas ups when it comes to presenting a merchandise critical to intervention of malignant neoplastic disease.

The direct gross revenues besides tie in with overall selling communicating planning since Biocon would non merely command distribution of the merchandise. but besides the gross revenues communicating. Biocon should take this clip during gross revenues to educate physicians on the consequences of the stage 3 tests and provide stuffs for patients that explain the handiness of Biocon reps during their intervention rhythms. Biocon reps. as mentioned in the instance. should educate the patient on their merchandise and supply other helpful malignant neoplastic disease information and household services in the signifier of support group mentions. etc.

5. How has Biocon’s scheme and positioning evolved over the old ages? What function does BIOMAb play in Biocon’s overall scheme? Biocon’s scheme and placement have greatly evolved over the old ages. The company started as an enzyme fabrication company that exported its merchandises from India to the United States and European nutrient processing industry. During this clip the company developed an expertness in assorted agitation procedures. The company shortly realized that the planetary enzyme market was limited to about $ 1 billion and decided to alter its scheme and place itself to vie in the biopharmaceutical market. which was a $ 10 billion dollar market that was quickly nearing $ 80 billion. Biocon was positioned nicely to travel into the infinite and compete in the generic drug sector. They were peculiarly positioned good to fabricate lipid-lowering medicines. Lipid-lowering medicines were a great tantrum for them because they were little molecules that were easy to fabricate and Biocon already possessed the proficient capableness to make so pulling on its strength in the agitation procedure and enzyme fabrication.

This short-run scheme to come in the market focused on developing globally competitory procedures that relied on their existing expertness to fabricate drugs whose patents were run outing. After successfully come ining into the pharmaceutical market through lipid-lowering medicines. the company was ready to go on on a growing way and travel on to their medium/long term stage by come ining into larger molecules in the signifier of insulin. Again. Biocon identified a big and quickly turning market where they saw their expertness in agitation giving them an border and ability to vie. The consequences were consistent with their first way alteration and they were once more really successful gaining over 10 % of the Indian insulin market portion. During this stage of their scheme they partnered with Clinigene to carry on clinical tests comparing it to the market leaders. The current stage of Biocom’s scheme is to switch the company’s focal point to the development of proprietary drugs.

Management once more saw that the market they were viing in would shortly shrivel due to the maturing of the Indian drug market and they would see tremendous monetary value force per unit area as a consequence. Their vision for the company was to develop drugs that no other companies had yet succeeded in conveying to market. and in making so harvesting the benefits of the immense final payment. BIOMAb is the kernel of the concluding and long-run phases of Biocon’s overall scheme. They are utilizing their collaborative scheme to spouse with CIMAB therefore giving Biocon the chance to develop and market the molecule. This is a immense measure towards the long-run end of traveling the company to a find and development focused biotech house.

BIOMAb is really of import to this following stage of the company’s growing. In the yesteryear they have relied on their expertness and experience carrying over from the enzyme development background. However in this following stage they are come ining into chartless district and as a consequence will necessitate to turn out they have the capableness to accommodate their expertness and go on to be successful in countries that are outside of their experience range. The success of the BIOMAb stage of Biocon’s overall scheme will be cardinal to the hereafter of the company and could bespeak that the scheme they have in topographic point will go on to supply the growing and profitableness they seek as a biotech house.