Year: 2011-12

Company: Gilead Sciences

Liaison(s): Scott Sellers

Since 1987, Gilead Sciences has worked to discover, develop, and commercialize medications in order to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases in areas of unmet medical need. In just over 20 years, Gilead has become a leading biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of 14 marketed products, a growing pipeline of investigational drugs and approximately 4,500 employees in offices across four continents. Gilead Science’s primary areas of focus include HIV/AIDS, liver disease, and serious cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory conditions. One of Gilead’s development projects, a therapeutic antibody, is currently moving through the Gilead development pipeline toward product launch. In support of this product, Gilead has asked the Gilead TMP team to provide independent input into the primary packaging of this new therapeutic product. Of course, any change in primary packaging may result in an extended time to market caused by the impact of packaging changes on the developmental and regulatory timelines. However, the ultimate value of the final product will be tied to the medical efficacy and the “ease of use” needs of the consumer. The Gilead TMP team developed a competitive market analysis to establish the value of therapeutic antibody packaging choices. Finally, the Team cataloged and evaluated both the tactical and strategic tradeoffs involved in pursuing a change in therapeutic antibody packaging for this near term product. The Gilead TMP produced a detailed assessment of the current marketplace for therapeutic antibody packaging. Further, the team made recommendations to Gilead which characterized the advantages of the team’s recommended packaging strategy. These recommendations were developed using primary and secondary marketing surveys focused on key stakeholders and their preferences as well as historical models for product packaging.