Helping an Emerging Company Understand What It Would Take to “Go It Alone” to Launch and Commercialize a New Product

A clinical stage company had a lead asset in rare disease that was anticipated to launch in about three years. This would be the company’s first commercial product, and executive leadership wanted to understand the capabilities, activities, and investments that would be needed to support a successful launch and commercialization.

We began by characterizing the high-level launch situation, including key drivers and barriers that would need to be addressed for launch success. We then defined the required capabilities, organized into key functions, to support launch (including building new functions and evolving existing ones). For each function, we defined the critical workstreams and activities needed to address the identified drivers & barriers for launch success, and then the required resourcing to execute those activities over time. Finally, we “rolled everything up” into a cross-functional roadmap that would guide the organizational build-up and launch process.

Our work gave the leadership team a much deeper understanding of what it would need for a successful launch, why those things are important, and when / how to invest and execute. The client was eventually acquired by a large pharmaceutical company. The deal was a success in part because client leaders were better able to assess deal terms in the context of the investment and organizational build needed to commercialize alone.