[January 17, 2013]

Pharma Brands Quickly Ramp up New Product Planning Staffing and Spending

A new Cutting Edge Information report found that as products move through development, the majority of surveyed companies' new product planning staffing and budget resources increase steadily to support those drugs' activities.

The study, "Pharmaceutical New Product Planning: Building the Framework for Brand Commercialization," discovered that at many surveyed companies, new product planning budgets and staffing for developing brands start as early as pre-clinical work, though resources are miniscule at this early point in most cases. These resources quickly ramp up, however, as brands progress stage-to-stage. From Phase 1 trials to Phase 2, staffing resources increased by 48%, on average, and from Phase 2 to Phase 3, staffing resources increased an average 128%. New product planning budgets for these brands increased at an even higher rate phase to phase.

"New product planning budgets are impressive once brands reach Phase 3, particularly considering new product planning teams' relatively small sizes," said David Richardson (News - Alert), Research Manager at Cutting Edge Information. "However, these budgets pale in comparison to launch and even post-launch commercialization expenditures. Because new product planning teams are limited early on to activities like preparing the market, forecasting potential and testing marketing messages, they don't often need the extensive resources of launch or post-launch groups."

"Pharmaceutical New Product Planning: Building the Framework for Brand Commercialization," (http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/portfolio-management/new-product-planning/) features detailed data on new product planning's early commercialization efforts including team structure and reporting lines, budget and spending, staffing-encompassing staff education levels, background and compensation metrics-and business development efforts. This study is designed to help pharmaceutical companies:

• Increase new product planning resources to support growing brand responsibilities as developing products move closer to launch.
• Communicate and work with clinical teams to insert commercially focused data collection into clinical trials.
• Facilitate easy transition of brand responsibility between teams by leveraging new product planning team members' expertise.
• Leverage new product planning teams' scientific and commercial expertise and unbiased perspectives to support business development groups.

For more information about new product planning benchmarking, contact Cassie Demeter at 919-403-6583.

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