THE SCOOP
Savvy specialists with global reach
IMS Consulting Group (IMSCG) is a major player in the field of
global biotech and pharmaceutical management consulting. With
around 500 consultants, the firm maintains a presence on five
continents and focuses on partnering with clients in the
pharmaceuticals, biotech and other life sciences sectors to help
them make informed decisions. IMSCG has growing teams in the
emerging markets, with strong local experts in Brazil, Shanghai,
Singapore, and truly global project work offering teams broader
exposure.
The company has four main centers of excellence: brand and
commercial strategy, competitive intelligence, pricing and market
access, and strategy and portfolio analysis. Altogether, those
units offer clients end-to-end services, qualitative and
quantitative analysis of existing and emerging market trends and
thorough implementation and execution of those strategies.
A healthy outlook
If the IMS name seems familiar in the life sciences context,
that's probably because IMS Consulting Group is a unit of IMS
Health-one of the best-known providers of information services for
the healthcare industry. Having long offered consulting as a
service, the firm decided in 2011 to create a separate identity for
its management consulting arm-and IMS Consulting Group is the
result.
In addition to partnering with some of the biggest names in
pharmaceuticals and biotech, IMSCG consultants also help non-profit
organizations to work towards their goals in designing and
delivering solutions to some of the most pressing global health
programs. One such example is IMSCG's involvement with the Bill and
Melinda Gates foundation, which the firm advised on a program to
improve access to generic medication.
IN THE NEWS
IMS Consulting Group regularly produces research and white
papers, which can be found by clicking here.
October and September 2013
Emerging Market Expertise
IMS Consulting vice-president Waseem Noor was quoted in two
articles on the opportunities for Big Pharma firms in emerging
markets. "Less than a decade ago, no company had a dedicated
strategy for these markets," he said at a roundtable
discussion with Pharma Exec, "It was all opportunistic and
short-term, focused on a small elite segment of the local
population. Today, you can't be a true pharma multinational if you
aren't present in the emerging markets in a big way."
In October, meanwhile, he told Fierce Pharma that "We
still see significant growth coming from these countries […] I
think we see it's much harder to be successful in these countries
than originally expected. To be an active player and a winning
player is a completely different ballgame."
Read the full articles at Pharma Exec and Fierce Pharma.
May 2013
Pharma 50 article
IMS Consulting Group's latest Pharma 50 article, published in the May
edition of Pharmaceutical Executive magazine, ranked the
top 50 pharma companies and described performance trends by
geography. The firm found that although there may be declines in
the industry in certain geographies, this downward trend is mostly
driven by the performance of a handful of larger companies facing
challenges like patent expiry of multi-billion dollar products. The
article also showed where some interesting opportunities exist, and
how some companies are adapting their business strategies and plans
to take advantage of new market dynamics.
May 2013
Study shows evidence-based drug reimbursement
decisions
The Pink Sheet published a new study by IMS Health and IMS
Consulting Group that shows payers globally are making more drug
reimbursement decisions based on real-world evidence - including 25
percent of more than 100 identified case studies using biopharma
industry-generated data.
The report, "RWE Market Impact on Medicines: A Lens for Pharma,"
was authored by Ben Hughes, senior principal of real-world evidence
solutions at IMS, and Marla Kessler, VP and Europe region leader at
IMS Consulting Group.
February 2013
Parsing the German drug pricing law
IMSCG Principal Justus Dehnen was quoted in a Financial
Times/BioPharm Insight article on the AMNOG
assessment of DPP-4 inhibitors. The article states that Novartis
has fair claim to challenge German drug pricing law, though a less
compelling case to protect diabetes drugs.
Read the full article here.