As the Promise of Diagnostic/Therapeutic Combinations is Increasingly Recognized, Pharmaceutical Companies Must Determine Best Practices in Terms of Co-Marketing These Combinations.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32218) has announced the addition of Integrating Diagnostics and Therapeutics for Targeted Therapies, Part II: The Importance of Calculating the Return on Investment to their offering.

As the promise of diagnostic/therapeutic combinations is increasingly recognized, pharmaceutical companies must determine best practices in terms of co-marketing these combinations. This two-part series from Decision Resources is designed to showcase fundamental considerations in diagnostic/drug co-marketing plans. Part 1 of this series examined the potential benefit that drug companies can gain from entering into well-planned marketing collaborations with diagnostics companies and presented a framework on which to build these collaborations. In Part 2, the report focuses on the importance of the financial justification for those collaborations. To highlight the importance of this analysis, this report discusses the variables that must be considered when quantifying the expected return. It reviews three hypotheses often encountered when determining the benefit of a diagnostic, applying to them historical cases in which the relationships between diagnosis and treatment can be measured or analyzed and used as benchmarks when estimating the

financial return on new ventures.

Business Implications

--With a broad range of targeted therapies requiring the use of a diagnostic coming to market, co-marketing of diagnostics and therapies will become routine. Although theranostics and personalized medicine promise to change the pharmaceutical business model, pharmaceutical companies have little experience in commercializing and marketing diagnostics.

--Pharmaceutical companies need to learn that diagnostics, like the more familiar pharmacotherapies, respond to long-range planning, branded marketing strategies, and direct selling. Diagnostics can also, in a wide range of circumstances, enhance a therapy's life-cycle and provide a more-predictable return on marketing investment.

--Although the recent growth in targeted therapy has encouraged the tandem delivery of diagnostics and therapeutics to the physician's office, joint sales teams are still not widely employed. Until the economics of a shared salesforce is explored in the field, the responsibility for organizing direct detailing of the diagnostic will be borne by the diagnostics partner.

--The pharma industry should not hesitate to take an early, active role in the collaboration to deliver integrated care. A logical approach integrating pharma's creative marketing skills could expand the market, help patients, and provide for better economic returns for both pharma and diagnostics

Topics covered in this report include:

--Reasons for Calculating the Return on Investment

--Estimates of Return

--Using Case-Based Reasoning to Calculate the Return on Investment

--The Diaceutics Model

--Variables

--Analyzing Scenarios Using Case-Based Reasoning

--Hypothesis 1: A Related Diagnostic Will Accelerate the Uptake of a Novel Drug in Clinical Areas Where Diagnosis Is Difficult

--Hypothesis 2. A Related Monitoring Test Will Improve Patient Compliance with a Drug That Requires Long-Term Use

--Hypothesis 3. A Well-Managed Diagnostic Program Can Justify Premium Pricing, Offsetting Restrictions in the Size of the Patient Pool

--Evaluating a Diagnostic Partnership

Some of the companies mentioned in the report include:

--Merck

--GlaxoSmithKline

--Digene

--DakoCytomation

--Genentech

--Sanofi-Aventis

--PharmaNetics

--Roche

--Abbott

--Eli Lilly

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32218