A mid-tier global pharmaceutical company approached Mindstone with an impending revenue cliff due to a loss of patent exclusivity on a number of key products. There were essentially two reasons that Mindstone got chosen to help this client in this situation.
The first was this client like a lot of the pharmaceutical industry is trying to become more like the biotech industry; we’ve got very deep experience in that space so we were a logical adviser to help them transform in that direction. Second and related is that they wanted a fresh perspective. the problem they were facing had been known for some time and been bounced around for some time.
The core challenge for the client had already been identified; it’s the same challenge that most the pharmaceutical industry is facing and that is with impending patent expirations. Most of the companies in industry are facing an impending revenue and earnings gap. The client asked us to transform their business development efforts; to look at who they might acquire to change the culture around decision making; to change the process and to really help them re-energize their business development in order to address their impending revenue cliff. In addition to transforming the company’s business development culture, Mindstone also developed a new approach for M&A transactions that fit within the overarching corporate growth strategy.
We started by developing an entirely new business development and transaction strategy which both aligned with their core business but also transformed them to deal with the impending revenue cliff. We also provided a rapid triage of business development opportunities that allow them to filter through a very long list of potential opportunities – the ones that really made a difference quickly.
We helped them execute and during the period of 18 months they completed about a dozen transactions that really changed the future of the company. In less than 18 months, Mindstone and the client executed more than a dozen deals and the client transformed itself from a traditional pharmaceutical company into an industry leader with a strong and diverse product pipeline, a solid portfolio of marketed products and clear vision for the future. The end result was really transformative and they were now having conversations about the new company as opposed to the old company.
