BCG helps biopharma companies fulfill their mission of delivering life-changing medicines and therapies, and take advantage of new technologies—including digital, data, and advanced analytics—in order to unlock innovation and bring new medicines to market faster.
Biopharma companies turn inspiration into innovation, discovering new medicines that improve and save lives—and they’re in the midst of transforming how they do it. The global pandemic has pushed digital, data, and analytics to the forefront of the industry, shortening the time it takes to develop new medicines and bring them to patients. Next-generation capabilities are driving more rapid and effective manufacturing and supply chains. They’re also enabling the swift redesign of networks, the creation of new commercial models and patient-engagement ventures, and the pursuit of new value-creation opportunities through M&A. BCG’s biopharma consulting experts work with companies to accelerate all of these changes, building a foundation for strong growth and sustained value creation.
Our biopharma consultants work closely BCG’s specialty businesses on specific value-chain priorities, including digital supply chain, next-generation sales, personalization, and digital marketing. With our guidance, companies can rapidly scale new capabilities and ways of working through agile at scale, data and digital platforms, and our Build-Operate-Transfer approach. We collaborate with BCG GAMMA on projects that require applied data science and advanced analytics, and with BCG Digital Ventures to launch new businesses.
The company identified data-driven solutions that not only boost efficiency but can be converted into systemic change and scaled throughout the global business.
Jim Riley reveals how the company applied agile principles and frameworks within its highly regulated and structured environment, breaking down silos and significantly accelerating product delivery.
Production Network Transformation. We guided a biopharma company through a multiyear transformation of its client network, production system, and supply model. The transformation included realigning site roles, combining portfolios, and pruning SKUs. It resulted in overall savings of more than $1.5 billion.
Increased Customer Engagement. At a major pharma company, topline growth for a previously underperforming product jumped 50% in a year after BCG used CRM, payer data, and other analytics to assess its promotional efforts and improve customer engagement.
R&D Innovation Strategy. We worked with a biopharma company to develop a holistic cell and gene therapy strategy. By collaborating, we identified entry points, current capabilities, possible M&A options, and needed investments, and created a high-level business plan.
Disease Management Platform. BCG Digital Ventures partnered with a global pharmaceutical company to launch a platform for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, providing live daily data to clinicians and medical researchers, and allowing for better treatment and drug development.
Post-Merger Support. We provided post-merger support for the integration of two flagship biopharma companies, preserving the best of each entity’s operating models while unlocking new potential, and creating opportunities to scale and diversify the unified portfolio. The result increased value through improved stock performance.
Integrated into our biopharma industry solutions are an array of proprietary tools, including benchmarks, databases, and other knowledge assets. Some highlights:
The Disease Deep Dive Navigator data-mining tool provides up-to-date market intelligence on developments in seven therapy areas. Clients use dashboards to track activity by therapy, company, R&D pipeline, and clinical trials.
The Biopharma M&A Suite is a series of tools that clients can use to identify potential products or technologies that could be a good match for their current or future portfolio and capabilities.
The BCOMM Benchmark is a database of key metrics for European and US industry players that helps clients optimize their own commercial organizational structure and operating models. It includes organizational productivity ratios by geography and function, resource strength, and activity allocation by geography.
The External Supply Benchmark is a database of external supply metrics for outsourcing manufacturing operations to third-party suppliers, including data on corporate portfolio and performance, organization and operating models, and tech transfers. BCG hosts an annual companion event with top biopharma industry suppliers.
The Yield Optimization Tool Model compiles sensor and process data and then applies machine learning to predict and optimize biopharma manufacturing yield based on key drivers.
The Real-Time Demand Forecasting tool is part of the BCG Lighthouse high-frequency data and analytics platform. It uncovers rapid shifts in demand and source of demand, allowing for dynamic planning and resource allocation. Forecasts for trends come from sophisticated proprietary models and data visualization.
Myrto Lee, a managing director and partner at BCG, talked with Sunil Verma, head of medical oncology at AstraZeneca, and Michael Norton, a BCG senior advisor, about how biopharma companies can use the medical affairs function to improve health outcomes for a more diverse set of patients.
Most companies and institutions are at least experimenting with one or more use cases, but less than 20% have established a strategy to guide their activities.
Biopharma companies can promote the success of product launches by initiating cross-functional collaboration on evidence generation early in the development process.
The Team B approach involves assembling an independent cross-functional team to conduct rapid reviews of launch plans and market conditions for new pharmaceutical products.
To succeed in the European market, small biotechs need to build a commercialization presence that reaches the maximum number of patients while managing the tradeoffs.
Gene therapy, stem cells, and other advances are changing the way complex diseases are treated. To capitalize, biopharma and biotech companies need to make strategic decisions about where to focus their efforts.
Biopharma and medtech companies that adopt a digital-native approach can generate better outcomes, lower costs, and greater customer satisfaction.
