How we support life science companies:

Alacrita's core team of life science consultants draws from a network of over 250 functional specialists, typically with at least 25 years of previous industry experience, allowing us to provide precisely targeted support on a range of technologies and disease areas.

Click here for more information on the life science consulting services we offer.


Our life science consulting services span three areas:


I. Life Science Product Development

Our expert teams are ready to support you through every step of product development, making sure you maximize value at each stage.


II. Life Science Strategy & Commercialization

Our team of life science business consultants provides deep knowledge in critical areas such as company and portfolio strategies, fundraising pitch materials, platform or program opportunity-feasibility assessments, new product planning, value-based pricing and market access, and product launch preparations.

III. Life Science Business Development

We dovetail with your in-house business development team to help find, evaluate and assess new assets, even taking responsibility for out-licensing your products to a pharma partner.



Recent Life Science Consulting Projects:

  • Assessing oral delivery of biopharmaceuticals: An incoming life science investor needed to assess a proprietary platform technology for the oral delivery of biological drugs. Our life science due diligence team took on the project, whose scope included assessing the following:
    • strength of preclinical data in comparison, as far as data was available, with competing approaches.
    • IP ownership and likely strength of patent protection.
    • clinical and regulatory strategy and execution; key risks and likelihood of success.
    • competitor landscape, including direct and indirect competition - market potential.
    • manufacturing feasibility, investment needs and likely COGS.
    • overall budget to reach product registration and market launch.

  • Interim oncology CMO: Following an engagement involving defining the clinical strategy for an innovative life science company, an experienced Alacrita consultant was deployed as their Interim CMO  for over two years. The life science consultant continued development of the lead candidate drug and other therapies in the company’s portfolio, provided medical support for the associated regulatory filings, and represented the company to investors and other external parties  

  • Providing in-licensing due diligence to a life science company: A life science company needed help conducting due diligence on an in-licensing/acquisition candidate for a Phase IIb respiratory drug. Our expert respiratory physician, who had extensive big pharma and biotech drug development expertise, reviewed the available documentation, including the investigator brochure, the clinical study reports and publications of data from two completed clinical studies in a target indication, the clinical protocol and statistical analysis plan for the ongoing Phase IIb clinical trial and the feedback from the European Scientific Advice Working Party concerning pediatric development and from the FDA in response to an IND submission for the Phase IIb protocol. 

    We concluded that the ongoing Phase IIb would have, at best, modest improvement in clinical performance and the drug would likely generate significant adverse events. We advised the client that in-licensing of the product should only be considered if the results provided more compelling evidence of clinical effectiveness than those available to date. The life science company did not proceed with the transaction and the Phase II trial later failed to meet its primary endpoint.

  • Opportunity assessment for functional RNA & protein arrays: A UK university had developed a technology that permits the creation of surface-immobilized functional RNAs in a microarray format. The technology has the potential to impact both industrial and academic research and contribute significantly to the unravelling of the complex interactions currently hidden within the transcriptome. Previous work on commercialization planning had established interest in the technology among both prospective academic and industrial users. However, feedback from interested parties highlighted that the university needed to better demonstrate utility of the RNA arrays in a practical application. Alacrita was therefore asked to provide further business planning and development support to the life science project.

  • Valuation of pipeline for fundraising activities: A life science company in oncology with a proprietary therapeutics development platform technology was in the process of fundraising activities. The company's pipeline included three main therapeutics in development, each for three distinct indications. The company asked Alacrita to develop a current pipeline valuation in order to guide their financing discussions, which were scheduled to occur in two weeks’ time.

  • Economic Impact of a life science research institute: A UK public sector life sciences research institute focused on fundamental mammalian biology required an economic impact assessment of its science, as part of the evidence base accompanying a submission for renewed core research funding. The particular challenge was to link scientific contributions made at the institute, beyond the immediately “translatable” research, to economic value created, given the long time-frames and multiple stakeholders involved. Alacrita was engaged to address this need.

  • Reality checking a new biosensor technology: A life science company considering an investment in a new early-stage biosensor technology for cuffless measurement of blood pressure needed due diligence support. The product had a number of potential advantages over existing technologies, however, its business activity was not currently in the healthcare sector therefore it wished to draw on external expertise to help with its due diligence of the technology and device.

 

Life Science Consulting Case Studies