Question: What are the key factors to consider for biopharma companies to strategically leverage M&A and licensing deals to expand their pipelines and address unmet medical needs, particularly in competitive therapeutic areas?

Answer: “Some example key factors involved in leveraging inorganic growth opportunities include

1. The organization’s view of the attractiveness of a contemplated therapeutic area or indication: what is the level of unmet need to patients, how many patients are impacted, what is the competitive intensity in the current product set and emerging pipeline, how strong is the fit with organization’s scientific, disease, and modality strategy, and other factors.

2. For a particular asset or company being considered to enter a therapeutic area or indication, is that the most attractive company/asset for entry, considering benefit to patients over current standard of care and/or other development stage assets, patients segments that can be addressed, risk profile for approval, deal price and closure risk, and other factors

3. What value can the organization add to the company or asset? Are there commercial synergies that can be exploited, how much company expertise/company resources can be leveraged, can additional life cycle management indications be further developed, can time to market be accelerated?” — Pat Fetaya, MBA