A "Survival Kit" for Biopharma CI Professionals
Jinfo Blog

By Yulia Aspinall

Abstract

Start-up biotechs and small pharma companies may not be able to afford access to expensive resources for competitive intelligence. Yulia Aspinall examines how to provide an essential CI service on a low budget.

Item

Competitive Intelligence (CI) professionals in the biopharmaceutical industry are under constant pressure to provide timely, current and reliable intelligence on competitors.

Although there are vast resources available to capture human and published intelligence, access can be expensive.

A CI Service on a Shoestring

For start-up biotechs or small pharma companies, such expenditure is likely to be a relatively low priority, but arguably understanding the competitive environment is especially important for these types of organisations.

Here are a few tips on how to provide an essential CI service, even with limited or no budget:

• To collect human or primary intelligence, use internal sources - up to 80% of vital intelligence can be collected inside the company. Knowing your customers well can provide a double benefit - so understand what knowledge on competitors is held internally and where are the gaps
  
  
• To collect free published information, use reliable resources such as PubMed for biomedical, ClinicalTrials.gov for clinical, EMA for regulatory, EPO for patent, and Consumer Reports
• For analysis, websites such as AuthorMapper, GoPubMed and Tableau Public can be useful
  
  
• For reporting you may want to consider Prezi or ThinkStoryline approach.

And, of course, don't forget about your own personal development (SCIP) and keeping in touch with your CI colleagues (LinkedIn)!

Editor's Note

FreePint Subscribers can log in to read and share more in Yulia Aspinall's article, Pharma Perspectives on CI Trends.

This article is part of the FreePint Topic Series: Next-Generation Competitive Intelligence running from May-June 2014. Register your interest now, and you'll also get a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Competitive Intelligence when it's published in June.

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