Pharmaceutical industry is a very competitive industry.

New treatments are being brought to market at an accelerating rate, rules and regulations are evolving at a rapid pace, and the supply chain is continually at risk, while customer expectations are always changing. At the same time, the pressure on the pharmaceutical company is increasing to support the making of better decisions, with risk control and maintaining the profitability level.

In this kind of setting, it’s not sufficient to just use intuition anymore.

Among the most successful pharmaceutical companies, there is an increasing recognition of the value of market intelligence solutions to uncover a better understanding of market trends, competitor activity, supplier networks, clinical developments and growth opportunities. These organisations are not waiting for opportunities to fall into their lap; they are seeing them first.

So, when your competitors are using market intelligence to inform their decision making, can you afford not to?

What is the reason why Marketing Intelligence has become a necessity for being competitive?

In the past, a company’s key decision making was based on old sales figures, standard market research reports and corporate experience.

Those are all important tools, but today’s pharma world is very fast moving.

Markets can change rapidly due to:

  • Clinical trial outcomes
  • Patent expirations
  • API supply disruptions
  • Competitive product launches
  • Regulatory updates
  • New product approvals

Businesses that are not paying attention to these changes end up reacting in what is becoming an increasingly complex scenario.

That’s where market intelligence solutions come into play.

Market intelligence allows businesses to be aware of the most recent industry trends, analyze the trends, and make sound decisions based on live data rather than assumptions.

In other words: it enables companies to recognize their current situation and to plan for the future.

How your competitors are using market intelligence

In many pharmaceutical companies, intelligence is not considered to be a support function but a strategic asset.

They leverage intelligence platforms and industry databases to answer their key business questions:

  • What are the fastest growing therapeutic areas?
  • Which APIs are being used more?
  • What are competitors developing?
  • What are the markets with the best growth prospects?
  • What are the sourcing risks occurring?
  • Which licensing opportunities are available?

Quick response to such questions can enable organizations to make confident decisions and move faster.

Identifying Opportunities Earlier

One of the best features of market intelligence is that it enables you to recognize opportunities prior to when they are apparent.

While for instance the company observing the therapeutic trends can find an increasing demand in one of those specific therapeutic areas, before the competitors realize of the commercial potential.

Likewise, supplier intelligence can identify new API manufacturers who can help implement future growth plans.

The first “mover” advantage is a benefit that often comes from visibility in the early stages.

Monitoring Competitor Activity

Competitor analysis doesn’t have to be confined to annual reports or public announcements.

The modern company, which is intelligent, monitors:

  • Product pipelines
  • Clinical trial activity
  • Market expansion efforts
  • Licensing deals
  • Regulatory approvals
  • Strategic partnerships

This visibility empowers companies to predict market changes and react proactively.

Making Smarter Investments

From building manufacturing capacity, product development, acquisitions to market expansion, successful companies use intelligence to support decision making.

They do not make assumptions about the market, the level of competition, or the potential for growth; they rely on data to assess those three factors.

The cost of operating without market intelligence is high.The price of not having Market Intelligence is costly.

Until they feel the pain, many firms are not aware that they have a gap in their intelligence.

Making decisions based on lack of reliable intelligence can result in reactive decision making and missed opportunities.

Missed Growth Opportunities

It is difficult to miss a growth opportunity for long.

If market trends aren’t tracked, companies will find out about opportunities when their competitors have already capitalised on them.

This can happen in:

  • API markets
  • Biosimilars
  • Specialty pharmaceuticals
  • Rare disease therapeutics
  • Emerging geographic markets

When the opportunity becomes evident, the competitive advantage may be lost.

Increased Business Risk

The more that people are not intelligent, the more uncertain they are.

Companies are at even higher risk in the absence of market insight with regards to:

  • Product launches
  • Supplier selection
  • Investment decisions
  • Licensing strategies
  • Market entry planning

In many circumstances, the price of making the wrong choice is much higher than the cost of investing in intelligence.

Slower Decision-Making

Many organizations don’t have a source of structured intelligence, so they spend many hours collecting information from several sources.

This can impede decision-making and delay strategic projects.

But intelligent platforms are making moves as well.

Market Intelligence Solutions and how they drive Business Growth

Market intelligence solutions are a lot more than just competitor monitoring.

These solutions enable organizations to better make decisions, across several business functions.

Market Opportunity Analysis

The knowledge of market size, market growth, customer demand, and the competitive activity can help organizations to understand which activities have the greatest commercial value.

This facilitates better investments and commercialization.

API and Supplier Intelligence

When supplier intelligence is reliable, a business can use it to determine manufacturing capacity, risk of supply and finding a suitable alternative supplier.

This intelligence is crucial in a world-wide supply chain.

This will include the clinical and Pipeline Intelligence.

Clinical trials and product pipelines can be tracked to spot new drugs, trends in innovation and collaboration opportunities.

This intelligence can be used by the business development team to guide their licensing and collaboration efforts.

Regulatory Intelligence

Regulatory changes may have a big influence on commercial success.

Market intelligence platforms provide access to market intelligence on changing requirements, approvals and compliance trends across various regions.

Competitive Benchmarking

Companies will have the ability to contrast and compare with other companies with regards to performance, their product portfolio and market position.

This is in order to pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Market Intelligence Providers Matter.The importance of Market Intelligence Providers.

There are different types of intelligence.

Insights are dependent on the data used.

This is the reason why many organisations are working with a specialized market intelligence provider.

These services provide access to validated, structured and updated industry intelligence on an ongoing basis.

Able to access reliable data.

Reliable intelligence providers gather data from several trusted sources, and check its accuracy before disseminating it to a client.

This minimizes the chances of basing your decisions on information that is too old or too little.

Industry Expertise

The specialized firms know about the complexities of the pharmaceutical markets.

They convert raw data into useful insights to help accomplish organizational objectives.

Faster Access to Insights

Organizations can now gain intelligence in a timely fashion and concentrate on decision-making rather than weeks of information gathering and analysis.

This provides a lot of efficiency across business processes.

Continuous Monitoring

Markets evolve constantly.

Professional intelligence providers keep businesses up-to-date on important events as they unfold.

Establishing an Intelligence-Driven Organisation

Organizations that beat the competition again and again tend to have a common trait – they don’t make decisions on assumptions.

There’s no need for an all-out effort to make the organization and company become intelligence-driven.

It starts with asking better questions:

  • What opportunities are emerging?
  • What risks are increasing?
  • What are the competitive moves of competitors?
  • Where are there good growth markets?
  • What efficiencies can be achieved in the operation?

It’s important to have accurate intelligence and a constant monitoring of the market to answer these questions.

Such attitudes are more likely to be encouraged in business that will be flexible, innovative, and successful.

Lifescience Intellipedia’s role in Intelligence-Driven Growth

Pharmaceutical markets are becoming more complicated and businesses demand trusted sources of industry intelligence.

Lifescience Intellipedia’s solution to these challenges is:

  • Market intelligence solutions
  • Pharmaceutical market research
  • API landscape insights
  • Competitive intelligence
  • Supplier intelligence
  • Regulatory intelligence
  • Clinical intelligence
  • Pharma database services

Organizations can leverage market knowledge and leverage structured intelligence platforms, which provide visibility and enable them to make informed strategic decisions and find growth opportunities sooner.

Conclusion

Companies that are quick to respond, effective in adapting and making decisions are rewarded by the pharmaceutical industry.

Today, much of your competition is already taking advantage of market intelligence solutions to find opportunities, track competition, assess threats and plan strategy.

When organisations are still using their own assumptions or bits and pieces of information they are heading towards a losing battle in a data-driven market.

Pharmaceutical firms can leverage the expertise needed for informed decision-making, risk reduction, and competitive edge by collaborating with trusted market intelligence firms.

Now there’s no question about the importance of market intelligence.

The true question is if your organization is putting it to good use, and is making it count.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are market intelligence solutions?

Market intelligence solutions are the products, databases and research services to aid organisations to track market trends, competitor activity, customer demand and business opportunities.

The importance of Market Intelligence for Pharmaceutical Companies

It allows making sound decisions, mitigates risks, uncovers business opportunities, and effectively adapts to market changes.

How does market intelligence contribute to the expansion of businesses?

Market intelligence providers provide validated industry data, competitive intelligence, market analysis, and strategic intelligence, which help in better decision-making.

What’s the difference between market intelligence and market research?

Market research can be project or study based, while market intelligence can be a continuous activity to track and update on current market trends.