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Periscope — January 2012 Issue

 

New Business Opportunities for Companies Serving Pharma

January 2012

The PharmSource PERISCOPE provides valuable insight into sales issues and trends for companies that sell goods or services to bio/pharma. It helps you recognize new business opportunities, and overcome sales obstacles. Enjoy the January issue.

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274 overall leads for pharma vendors were reported by the PharmSource Lead Sheet in December 2011:

Lead Type December 2011
Non US 102 1,563
Early Dev 64 877
Late Dev 50 689
Large molecule 40 735
Small molecule 102 1,405
Newly-funded 62 886
New sourcing 19 223
Parenteral 54 913
Oral 48 907
Total Leads 274 3,983

Below are two actual leads from recent issues of the PharmSource Lead Sheet (PLS), the weekly, web-based information service that delivers new business opportunities and key market intelligence information to companies serving Bio/Pharma. It includes new information on products in development, acquisitions, alliances, financing transactions, and more, and delivers up to 70+ fresh leads each week in pharma/biotech companies around the world. Use the PLS to stay on top of opportunities as soon as they’re announced, to keep attuned to market activity and trends, and as a key resource for targeted marketing.

For The Week Of
January, 8th 2012



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This section of the PERISCOPE summarizes a sampling of the many recent appointments of new people to high-level positions in pharma/biotech. For more information of this nature, see the “Key Appointments” section of the weekly PharmSource Lead Sheet.


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By Dave J. Kahle

Field sales people have a unique aspect to their jobs: they have the ability to decide what to do every moment of every day. The need to make this decision — where to go, who to see, who to call, what to do —distinguishes the sales profession from most others. The quality of this decision, more than any other single thing, dictates the quality of a sales person’s results. Consistently make effective decisions, and your results will improve. Make thoughtless, habitual or reactive decisions, and your results will be sub-par.

One of the ways to ensure that you make good decisions about your selling time is to create a comprehensive sales plan; a written, thoughtful set of decisions about the most effective things you can do. A sales plan should be the result of some good thinking, wherein you analyze and prioritize a number of different aspects of your job. A good sales plan addresses different time durations and different aspects of your job.

Annual planning retreat
Every sales person should discipline himself/herself to conduct an annual planning retreat. Set a day or two aside, every year, to engage in some serious planning. Turn off the phone, shut down the email, and immerse yourself into deep thought about the coming year. Begin by specifying a series of annual sales goals. What, specifically, do you want to accomplish this year in your job? I recommend no more than five specific sales goals. Typically, one of these goals describes the total volume of sales dollars you want to create; another may describe the number of new customers you want to acquire; yet another may relate to the number of high potential customers with whom you want to increase your business. Regardless of what your goals are, an annual, written, specific set of goals is the beginning of a sales plan.

Next, give some thought, and express that thought on paper, as to your basic strategy to accomplish those goals. If you’re going to acquire 20 new customers, for example, exactly what are you going to do in order to accomplish that annual goal?

Classify all your prospects by their potential. Rank them in order, identify those with the most potential, and then plan to spend more time with the highest potential prospects.

Re-organize your filing system; throw out the obsolete hard copies and delete the unnecessary electronic files.

To do this well, you will need to devote a full day or two. This annual exercise is the first part of a good sales plan.

Monthly plan
Next, you should develop a more detailed plan every month. Produce a one or two page document which contains your specific commitments to the most effective actions. Once again, you are required to analyze and prioritize your efforts in regards to a number of issues.

First, your monthly objectives: What do you want to accomplish, relative to the annual goals that you set? If you said you wanted to sell $2,000,000 worth of goods this year, how much do you have to sell this month? Each of your annual goals should have a monthly component.

Next, address your prospects and customers. In order of priority, in which prospects and customers should you invest your time? That priority often takes the form of a methodical and objective ranking into categories – typically A, B, and C — based on potential. The sales plan should describe your plan for coverage of the A’s and B’s.

Address the CTM opportunities, regardless of where they occur. CTM stands for Closest To the Money. Analyze and prioritize your efforts related to those opportunities within your territory that are closest to the money. What are you going to do to bring each of them to fruition? Specify for each the dollar amount of the opportunity, and what your actions should be.

Your company may have certain key products or product lines that it wants to emphasize. If so, you’ll need to analyze and prioritize your efforts in regard to those product lines. What will you do this month to increase sales of each product line? What specific actions will you take, in which specific accounts?

Finally, what will you do this month to improve yourself? What classes or seminars will you attend? What books will you read? To which CDs will you listen?

Note that all of this addresses not every action you will take, but rather the most effective actions. You can note these things on a page or two.

Don’t think that you can keep all this in your head, and skip the discipline of writing it down. Writing each specific action and strategy down, whether it’s on a yellow pad or a computer document, forces precise thinking. The written word also commits you to a much deeper degree than if you keep the idea locked in your head.

After you’ve completed this monthly sales plan, it’s time to schedule your time. Lay out a plan for each day for the next 30 days. Where will you plan to be, and who will you plan to see? Reflect first your priorities from your monthly plan. Then fill in the non-priority calls.

You and I both know that your days will rarely go according to plan. However, without a plan, you will have totally given up the ability to control and manage your time. By having a plan, you have something to fall back on, something to refer to, some benchmark by which to measure the constant and urgent demands on your time.

Weekly plans
Next, you need to reorganize and recommit to your monthly time and territory plan each week. Adjust your plan based on what actually happened the previous week. For example, if you didn’t get to see an an account that you had planned on seeing, can you see them this week instead? Make your adjustments each week. At the end of each week, spend some time planning and preparing for the upcoming week.

Daily plans
Finally, you need to plan each sales call. What do you want to accomplish in each call? What do you need to prepare in order to accomplish your goals? Again, you’ll be more focused and more committed if you write down a specific outcome that you would like to achieve in each sales call. Keep in mind that sales is a process, consisting of a series of steps that the buyer and seller take to come to a good decision. Your planned outcomes should be narrow and specific, instead of just “Sell this account.”

The creation of a sales plan, as you can see, is not a simple, one-time event. Rather, it’s a discipline that involves a commitment of time and thoughtfulness at specific intervals throughout the year. This is not just an administrative requirement, but a powerful tool that enables professional sales people to consistently make good decisions about the most important issue they face: Where to go and what to do.

About the Author

Dave Kahle is a leading sales educator. The author of nine books (including How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime), Dave has presented in 47 states and eight countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations. Sign up for his free weekly Ezine at http://www.davekahle.com.

Reprinted with permission. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6684229


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By Dave J. Kahle

Here’s a situation: you’ve created a list of 20 highly qualified prospects, you’ve researched them, and you know that these 20 people hold your prosperity in their hands. But they don’t know you, have never spoken to you, and aren’t inclined to drop everything and see you. How do you get to see them? You can do what everyone else does. Send them an email. Maybe leave a voice mail message. Then be really frustrated that no one calls back. Or, you can do something a bit different, and much more creative.

For those highly qualified prospects, think of using a “pre-call touch.” A pre-call touch is something you deliver to the prospect that says something about you, catches his attention, and makes it more likely that he/she will see you when you call. Here are two examples of “pre-call touches” from my most recent book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

An advertising agency had identified 100 “right people”; the key people in their market and location who held the future of the advertising agency in their hands. They had accomplished the first step—identifying the right people—with excellence. The problem was to move those highly qualified prospects to interact with the agency. The experienced team knew the key people with whom they needed to interact were busy and difficult to reach. They just wouldn’t respond to the normal channels. So, they came up with this very creative way of engaging with their prospects.

They sent each of the 100 prospects a box, about the size of a watch box. It was wrapped in brown paper and contained no return address. The name and address of the prospect was hand-written in a female hand. Inside the box was a sugar cube and a small piece of paper, like the size of a fortune cookie message, with the words, “Keep it sweet.” That was it. Nothing else.

One week later, those same prospects were sent another box, wrapped and addressed in exactly the same fashion. This time, it contained a lemon with the message, “Don’t let it go sour.” Again, nothing else in the box.

On the third week, yet another box was sent, wrapped and packaged identically. This time, the box contained tinsel foil, like that which you use to decorate a Christmas tree. The message? “Make it sparkle.” Once again, nothing else.

Week four, yet one more box arrived, identical to the others. This time there was only one thing inside: a business card from the advertising agency sales person, with a self-stick note on it. On the note was the hand-written message, “I’ll call you tomorrow for an appointment.”

Of the 100 people who received that series of deliveries, every single one of them took the call and made the appointment. The advertising agency, when faced with the difficult task of engaging the prospect, had developed an effective and creative solution. They gained their prospects’ attention, they captured their interest, and they prompted them to take action – they took the phone call and made the appointment. In other words, they engaged the right people!

Here’s another example. This time, I was on the receiving end of a well done “pre-call touch.” I was busily typing away on my computer when the FedEx guy walked into my office, put a box down on my desk, and said, “sign here.” I did.

You know what you do when you get a personally addressed FedEx delivery—stop everything and open the box. That’s what I did. Inside was a package of microwave popcorn. Underneath that was a plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi. Underneath that was a linen envelope with my name hand written in a female’s script. I opened the envelope. Inside was an invitation, personally written in the same script. It said, “Dave, We have researched your company, and concluded that yours is the kind of company that gains the most from our service. I’d like to invite you to take 30 minutes and watch a webinar as I introduce what we can do for you. Enjoy the popcorn and soda, and let me do all the work. I’ll call you this afternoon to confirm.”

I thought to myself, “Not bad. This probably cost them $30.00 to $40.00. They wouldn’t have invested that money and time in someone who was not a good prospect. I probably am right for them. I’ll take the call.” This salesperson could have sent me an email, and I would have deleted it unopened. She could have left me a voice mail message, and I would not have returned it. Instead, she chose to deliver something to me that got my attention, and made it much more likely that I would accept her phone call.

Clearly, a “pre-call touch” isn’t for every situation, nor every prospect. For those high potential, qualified prospects, however, it can be the event that opens the door. I don’t know what you can use as a “pre-call touch.” A little creative brainstorming on your part could develop just the right delivery. Don’t give in to the temptation to send a company brochure (yawn), or just a letter. Break out of the box and think about what you could deliver that would catch the prospect’s attention, say something about you, and make them more likely to take your call. It can make all the difference.

About the Author

Dave Kahle is a leading sales educator. The author of nine books (including How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime), Dave has presented in 47 states and eight countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations. Sign up for his free weekly Ezine at http://www.davekahle.com.

Reprinted with permission. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6393893

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Prospect Profile highlights a newly funded bio/pharmaceutical company each month. This includes important insights into the featured company’s product pipeline, manufacturing and business relationships, and likely sourcing opportunities.

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a public pharmaceutical company that develops small molecule therapies that regulate cell signaling in order to treat cancer. As reported in the December 22, 2011 issue of the PharmSource Lead Sheet, ARIAD raised approximately $243 million in a secondary public offering.

Corporate Highlights

  • ARIAD was organized as a Delaware corporation in April 1991.
  • Corporate Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts – approximately 100,000 square feet of laboratory and office space.
  • As of March 15, 2011, ARIAD had 122 employees, most of whom were engaged directly in R&D.

Sourcing Opportunities

  • This funding will enable ARIAD to: continue a trial and potentially file for marketing approval of ponatinib in the US and Europe in mid-2012; prepare for the commercial launch, sale and distribution of ponatinib in the US and Europe; conduct additional clinical trials of ponatinib in Japan, if approved; complete a Phase I/II trial and a pivotal trial of AP26113; and to fund additional trials globally.
  • ARIAD is dependent upon the ability of third parties, CROs, collaborative academic groups, clinical trial sites and investigators to conduct or assist in conducting clinical trials for product candidates.
  • ARIAD is able to manufacture in-house preclinical quantities of product candidates for testing. However, ARIAD contracts with third-party manufacturers to assist in the development and optimization of their manufacturing processes and methods and to supply quantities and dosage forms for product candidates in clinical trials. The company expects to depend on third-party manufacturers for the supply of their products upon commercialization.
  • Merck is responsible for supplying the API used in ridaforolimus. However, Merck may sub-license the technology used to create the API to contract manufacturers so that they may manufacture ridaforolimus for Merck’s and ARIAD’s use.
  • ARIAD has no experience in marketing or distribution of products.

Business Relationships

  • In October 2006, Bellicum and ARIAD entered into a commercial licensing agreement for ARIAD’s ARGENT cell-signaling regulation technology. ARIAD received payments and has an equity stake in Bellicum. The Bellicum product candidates use ARIAD’s AP1903, a small molecule dimerizer drug that has completed Phase I trials, to develop new cancer therapies.
  • In July 2007, ARIAD entered into a global collaboration agreement with Merck under which both companies shared responsibility for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of ridaforolimus.
  • In May 2010, ARIAD and Merck amended the 2007 agreement whereby Merck was granted an exclusive license to ridaforolimus for use in cancer. Merck also assumed responsibility for all activities related to the development, manufacturing and commercialization of ridaforolimus.

Pipeline

Product Candidate Indication Dosage Form Status Next Anticipated Step
ponatinib Solid Tumors Unknown Preclinical TBA
AP1903 Graft-vs-Host Disease (GvHD) Parenteral – Unspecified Phase I Phase II trial expected to start in 2012
AP1903 Prostate Cancer Parenteral – Unspecified Phase I Phase II trial expected to start in 2012
AP26113 Lung Cancer and Other Tumors Oral – Unspecified Phase I Patient dosing in a Phase I/II clinical trial initiated in September 2011
ponatinib Advanced Acute Myeloid Leukemia Tablet Phase I Positive data reported in June 2011
ridaforolimus Other Solid Tumors Tablet – Immediate Release Phase I TBA
ridaforolimus Breast Cancer Tablet – Immediate Release Phase II TBA
ponatinib Resistant or Intolerant Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Tablet Phase III Positive preliminary data reported in December 2011
ridaforolimus Soft Tissue/Bone Sarcomas Tablet – Immediate Release Filed TBA


Finances

(In $ thousands) 2009 2010
Revenues 8,302 174,460
R&D Expenditures 63,447 57,985
General & Administrative Expenditures 16,888 16,095
Total Operating Expenses 74,080 80,335
Capital Expenditures 1,344 2,198


Contact Information

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Key Officers
26 Landsdowne Street Harvey J. Berger, MD, CEO
Cambridge, MA 02139-4234 Timothy P. Clackson, PhD, CSO & President, R&D
Phone: (617) 494-0400 Frank Haluska, MD, PhD, CMO & SVP, Clinical R&D
Fax: (617) 494-8144 William C. Shakespeare, PhD, VP, Drug Discovery
Web: www.ariad.com Daniel M. Bollag, PhD, SVP, Regulatory Affairs & Quality


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The PharmSource Lead Sheet is the weekly web-based information service that identifies fresh business opportunities for companies serving pharma and biotech. Respected, endorsed and depended on by the top companies, the PLS informs you of new business opportunities. It lowers your prospecting costs, raises the productivity of your sales staff, and helps keep your lead funnel full.

If you’re not yet a subscriber to the PharmSource Lead Sheet, we invite you to take a complimentary test-drive to see for yourself how this service can be a vital tool for growing your market share and building your brand recognition.

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