The 5 types of biopharma intelligence you should know about

Biopharma is as much about how you get your products to the patients that need them as it is about developing the drugs or treatments themselves.

A huge part of marketing a new drug or biopharma product is having stellar biopharma intelligence behind your decision-making processes. Without it, you’ll have an uphill battle deciding what’ll be best for your products.

Biopharma intel is about discovering what your competitors are doing, how your customer base is evolving, and how best to construct an efficient product strategy.

In today’s article, we’ll cover the five types of biopharma intelligence that you should know about and how they can benefit your organisation.

Type 1: Research & development

Arguably the most critical phase in developing new biopharma products is the R&D phase. Biopharma intelligence can assist your organisation in optimising drug development, including support from initial discovery through to clinical trials.

Through detailed and in-depth clinical and scientific intelligence, you can identify potentially lucrative markets to develop new drugs within, which is biopharma intelligence's primary function in the R&D phase.

Be it scientific literature monitoring, bioinformatics analysis, preclinical drug performance comparisons, to planning the feasibility of different clinical trials. Biopharma intel is hugely important for several R&D applications.

Type 2: Regulatory and compliance management

Regulations and legislation relating to developing new drugs are constantly changing as new materials and approaches are developed. It is critical for any business or organisation in the biopharma industry to stay up-to-date with recent changes – even if it doesn’t directly impact them.

Having a finger on the pulse of changes can help you plan around anything that may impact your business or current R&D cycle. It can also help your company or organisation avoid potentially business-ending lawsuits.

Succinct biopharma intelligence can help you track these changes. It can also assist with keeping your organisation compliant and increase the likelihood of a positive outcome for Health Technology Assessments.

Stay ahead of legislative changes.

Type 3: Business development and portfolio strategy management

Biopharma is a complex and quickly evolving landscape that requires the right intelligence to develop your business and manage an existing portfolio (while developing or acquiring new portfolio assets).

A key element of employing this type of intelligence is being able to use data gathered and processed by data scientists, epidemiologists, and real-world information relating to patient needs and demands in an effective way.

This can range from market assessment via size and forecasting to the dynamics of how treatment would work with your portfolio’s products in the real world. Using insights generated from this biopharma intel is essential to continue developing a relevant and profitable business.

Type 4: Manufacturing and cost reduction

In the biopharma industry, the manufacture of drugs (particularly generics) can be very competitive, and the right intelligence can help you make data-driven decisions to benefit your company’s portfolio.

Manufacturing things like generics between biosimilar companies can lead to tight profit margins and fewer opportunities to thrive with a particular drug type.

Research into things like generics and patents can help you decide what developmental path to take your R&D down. This can result in making sound decisions regarding new drugs your organisation or company should develop (by allowing biopharma intelligence to identify demands in the market).

Research into the manufacturing process can also yield positive results for manufacturing affordable drugs.

Insights into market share, patents, supply chains, and the availability of resources can inform your company of the most cost-effective way to develop an in-demand drug for the market.

Type 5: Customer research

In the biopharma world, nothing is more important than the intended customers for your products and having your products reach the endpoint that will benefit them most is paramount to building a dedicated customer base.

Biopharma intel can help you identify that customer base by using demographic screening, providing extensive market insights, and assisting with customer perceptions of drugs and brands.

Knowing what customers want and need can help you decide where to expand your company portfolio.

Customer research can also aid in improving your drug’s market access by assessing the accessibility of your new drug to certain demographics or customer bases. It can also identify both localised and global opportunities for driving sales.

Lastly, customer research can help you inform a launch strategy for the commercial supply of your drug to stores or pharmacies.

In summary

Biopharma intelligence is essential for any biopharma company to be successful in the long term. It can be used as a tool not only to understand the market and customer needs but to develop existing drugs further to better suit the evolving medical market.