With shrinking R&D pipelines and mounting costs involved in drug development, it is becoming increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies to implement suitable life cycle management (LCM) strategies in order to maximize revenues and the lifespan of their portfolios, according to business intelligence provider GBI Research.

The company’s latest CBR Pharma report, “Life Cycle Management Strategies—Optimizing revenues and defending generic competition,” states that there are three fundamental categories of LCM strategies, namely developmental, commercial and regulatory/legal strategies, all of which play a key role in boosting the profitability of pharmaceutical products.

Priyatham Salimadugu, analyst for GBI Research, said successful LCM planning commences early in the life cycle of a drug, ideally during the R&D phase, and that multiple factors, such as timing, disease characteristics and market environment, should be considered when choosing an LCM strategy.

Salimadugu said, “The key to good LCM is not to manage a single product in isolation, but to think in terms of optimizing sales of the company’s entire portfolio, both marketed and R&D, through planning and learning across the organization.

“However, the changing industry and regulatory environment is impacting the effectiveness of LCM strategies themselves. As such, LCM strategy selection and implementation needs to be a dynamic and adaptive process, and having access to up-to-date market intelligence is a vital factor.”

GBI Research’s report also states that while developmental strategies are implemented to significantly increase revenue during the period of market exclusivity, commercial strategies work to expand a product’s uptake and value.

Salimadugu said, “Developmental LCM strategies focus on increasing the number of patients eligible to receive a drug, such as by expanding its usage for different indications or targeting rare diseases. These strategies also focus on maximizing patient uptake by offering more convenient methods of administration, improving dosing frequencies or reducing side effects.

“Commercial strategies include switching from prescribed to over-the-counter drugs, geographical expansion, and utilizing price flexibility. In this last case, timing and competitive intelligence are crucial to the success of strategic pricing, as altering the price too early or too late may mitigate any benefit,” the analyst concludes.