Conference intelligence - CI on clinical trials and emerging competitors

Background and objectives

Lifescience Dynamics was invited to undertake a competitive intelligence project in the area of hepatitis C, with a focus on clinical trials of our client's major competitors, as well as emerging competitors in their core product.

Approach

A conference for the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) was the platform for gathering intelligence:

• Two analysts attended
• Our analysts utilised information from presentations and posters, as well as using both direct and indirect questioning to answer the KITs
• Follow-up telephone interviews were also used to fill holes in intelligence and corroborate findings

Results delivered

Robust findings provided the insight our client needed, including:

• Therapy was evolving; new oral small molecule classes of drugs were seen as products of the future
• New players and new products had resulted in intense industry and analyst interest; analysts believed that the client, perceived to be a laggard, could maintain its franchise in this area only through a robust programme of licensing or acquisition.
• Key competitor had an aggressive phase IV trial programme but there was no marketing threat perceived until at least 2009/2010