Background and Scope
Our client was a pioneering US company with valuation north of US$ 7 billion and drug discovery interests ranging from cellular therapeutics to dermatology.The Client was keen to develop a phytopharmaceutical portfolio that could be advanced as prescription drugs through the USFDA’s botanical drug pathway. The Client engaged Sathguru to assess scope of the opportunity, map landscape of phytopharmaceutical drug development, evaluate potential pipeline assets and finally, make recommendations on way forward on the overall portfolio strategy and potential strategic partners.
Project Approach
Sathguru adopted a bottom-up approach to comprehensively map this emerging opportunity while actively leveraging competitive intelligence to validate findings and identify leads. Since the botanical drug /phytopharmaceutical pathway is relatively recent, we also explored nutraceutical R&D programs/assets that could be repositioned as prescription drugs.
For the bottom up approach, we performed an exhaustive and comprehensive patent search to analyze prominent trends in natural product derived therapeutic solutions and identify prominent innovators in the segment. The map of potential partners/assets was also expanded through a review of institutional annual reports and inputs from primary research with key stakeholders.
A funneling approach with multiple parameters was used to shortlist assets which met key criteria prioritized with the Client. Confidential data shared by innovators was also assessed for all shortlisted assets. All shortlisted assets were finally ranked and prioritized based on techno-commercial merit.
Study Output
As part of final recommendations, Sathguru advised the Client on overall partnership merit for each individual asset/partner identified. The study was instrumental to the Client making final way forward decision on the phytopharmaceutical portfolio strategy.