Commercial Functions in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Companies

Innovative science and revolutionary therapeutics are the foundation of a successful biotechnology or pharmaceutical company, but once the registrational trials are complete, the commercial function must support any therapy for it to reach the right patients. This course explores marketing, market analytics, and sales for a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company and shares insight into how companies succeed once research and development and the core clinical trials are done. This course pulls back the curtain for students who are currently or are interested in working in one of those commercial functions; for students who work in partner functions who need an understanding of commercial functions to operate at their best (for example, medical affairs and clinical development); and other industry players who use commercial assumptions or insight regularly (for example, venture capital, private equity, or public investors and early-stage entrepreneurs). Topics covered for marketing include strategy, promotions, and key customer/key opinion leader (KOL) engagement. For marketing analytics, we examine market planning, long- and short-term forecasting, competitive intelligence, and marketing science. We explore sales overview and purpose, sales interaction with internal partners, and sales structure, direction, and incentives.