Pharma Company Uses System Dynamics Dashboard to Manage Product Life-Cycle

A leading global pharmaceutical company wanted to understand the interdependencies between resource levels and experience through the life-cycle of drug products. It was also interested in the impact of organisational design on its ability to manage the product pipeline.

In a series of workshops, we developed further an internal qualitative model of the system and produced a quantitative simulation tool for assessment of the likely impact of investment in resources & training. This project model enabled multiple drug products to be evaluated throughout their life-cycle as they affect resource requirements (numbers of people, experience etc) and also to assess the relationships between organisation capabilities and life-cycle progress and success.

The work built on a number of previous engagements with the client and benefited greatly from the experience gained by the modeller and the client team. Using large-scale posters of model overview diagrams, the modelling team were able to bring into the design and development phase a number of senior executives with the experience required in order to gain confidence in the approach.

The organisation now has a quantitative model in which to evaluate the possible impact of investment in resources, training etc on the product portfolio and, ultimately, on profitability. We delivered a comprehensive “cockpit” user interface enabling involvement by non-expert users and model development continues in the light of user feedback.

The effective management of product life-cycles is of critical importance to pharmaceuticals, made worse by the ‘ticking clock’ of the patent life for a drug. Better management of this issue can be worth many millions of dollars for a single product, and since this project enhances decision-making across numerous products, it is delivering very considerable overall value.

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