Taking the Pain Out of Partnering: How We Do It
Strategic partnerships have become a critical growth strategy in the pharmaceutical sector. The advantages are many (which we outline below), but a lot of companies find the prospect of finding, selecting, and forming an agreement with a potential partner daunting – if not painful!
Why? Partnering requires heavy lifting in terms of expanding your network, forming relationships, and doing the legwork required to find and choose the right partner. It’s a lot to deal with for a business owner, even with an executive team in place.
This is especially true for the companies we work with, which include emerging biotechs and biopharma companies. As a scientific founder, the experience you bring is often from the lab or academia, so your network may:
Be too small in general
Consist of other academics and scientists and not necessarily the types of people who will drive your business forward
Be too local or regionally focused, which makes global opportunities hard to come by or achieve
Read on to learn how to form a strong strategic partnership in pharma and biotech.
Benefits of Partnering in Pharma & Biotech
We continue to see big pharma pairing up with small and emerging biotech companies to deliver more efficient results for late-stage assets. (Including regional partnerships, which we talked about in a recent post, Is a Regional Partnership Right for Your Biotech Company?)
The benefits of partnering (for both parties) include:
Expanding big pharma’s reach into more specialized, diverse targets and therapeutic areas (and sub-therapeutic areas)
Allowing big pharma to identify assets in areas of unmet medical need they wouldn’t have otherwise
Providing resources for biotech companies to navigate earlier-stage development and the costs associated
Helping biotechs conduct large scale R&D and clinical research initiatives that would be otherwise unaffordable on their own
Allowing biotech innovations to reach wider geographic markets by leveraging big pharma’s infrastructure in multiple countries
Opportunities for venture capital (VC) groups to come in and partner with early stage companies with preclinical assets, injecting an allotted amount of cash (typically $5-10 million)
How to Form an Effective Strategic Partnership in Biotech & Pharma
Although the partnering process requires a lot of time and effort, it can be broken down into Sosna’s 4 Simple Steps to Partnering.
Below is the general process we use at Sosna + Co for a more efficient (pain-free!) experience for our clients:
Ready – Build the Target List
The first step is compiling a comprehensive list of ideal companies and contacts. This typically includes looking at your own connections, scraping databases for assets/companies/contacts, and attending relevant events.
*This step is the most daunting and difficult for companies. It takes a lot of time, and overlooking a potential target is a real risk if your network isn’t large enough, your network is only local/regional, or you don’t have access to the right contacts and data.*
We help our clients take the pain out of building the target list by working our own network of more than 80,000 quality contacts in the life sciences.
Just as you have honed your scientific craft, we have spent the last 15 years honing our signature process to generate repeatable results.
We leverage databases and other forums to gain data business owners don’t typically have access to on their own. Then we track and qualify leads in our digital system to make identification easier.
Aim – Decide Who to Target First
With your list in place, it’s time to evaluate it to ensure you are narrowing it down to the right companies/assets/people. When it comes time to book meetings, this will drastically save time and make sure you are finding and meeting with the right people.
We sort through our contact lists using digital filters on behalf of our clients. Filters can be done by:
Geography
Company information (company type, annual revenue, company size, number of employees, etc.)
Industry (biotech, nutrition, animal health, vaccines, etc.)
Therapeutic area (oncology, CVD, neurology, etc.)
Job title
Product type
And more
The search can be either narrow or broad depending on your objectives.
At Sosna + Co, we use a tiered approach based on your desired strategy and the opportunities available. For example:
Tier 1 - your most ideal candidates with the closest match to your strategy, asset type, and therapeutic area - reach out to them first
Tier 2 - candidates who may fit your desired therapeutic area and strategy but with a different asset (or the reverse)
Tier 3 - candidates who fit your general strategy but perhaps different dosage form or therapeutic area, for example
Pro tip: Don’t discount companies early on! The worst thing they can say is no, but you will at least have explored it.
Target – Plan Your Outreach Activities
Congratulations! You have narrowed down your list and have decided (or at least begun to decide) which ones to reach out to. These are your targets, and how you reach them will make or break your potential partnership!
It’s an exciting step because it means you’re that much closer to finding the right match for your company.
Planning outreach activities is mostly about building relationships. Outreach can include:
Digital marketing/BD – automated and manual online marketing and business development activities (email, social media, lead capture, etc.)
Traditional marketing/BD – classic tried-and-true tactics (phone/video calls, meetings, direct email, events, and more)
Pro tip: Don’t forget to pick up the phone! People do business with people, so avoid over-relying on automations and impersonal communications.
Approach – Choose a Cadence/Schedule for Approaching Targets
It’s time to make those meaningful connections with potential targets. The exact schedule of events can vary, but in general the process is the same.
Examples of outreach activities to your target list include:
LinkedIn cold or warm outreach
Email cold or warm outreach
Scheduling intro calls
Booking in-person meetings at conferences, trade shows, networking events
Follow-up emails, phone/video calls, messages
Follow-up meetings, dinners, and other touchpoints
By following the process in a planned and tightly managed way, you will be able to efficiently approach the right targets to get the ball rolling.
Sometimes the target isn’t an exact match, or they are not open to partnering at this time. This is ok because you have expanded your network with quality connections that could bear fruit later.
When you do find the right match and they are seeking partnership, you move to the next stage - negotiation (see our previous post with tips and tricks for effectively negotiating business deals.)
Conclusion
There are many benefits to strategic partnerships, especially between big pharma and smaller biotechs. Given the time, resources, and expertise involved, seeking help with this from the Sosna team is the most effective way to take the pain out of forming an effective partnership for your organization, ultimately saving time. At the end of the day time is money!
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Sosna + Co is a boutique, outsourced business development partner for the life sciences. From M&A advisory and licensing deals with Fortune 500 companies to uncovering the potential of savvy, new start-ups, the principle is simple: we work meticulously to uncover new opportunities that grow your business. Contact us today to learn more.