Building the commercial infrastructure and cross-functional alignment that determines launch trajectory — before the first patient is treated.
Illustrative engagement — reflects our approach and capability across this type of challenge
Pharmaceutical product launches are won or lost in the 12–18 months before launch. The commercial decisions made during that window — payer strategy, positioning, pricing, patient pathway design, medical education, KOL engagement — determine trajectory in a way that is extremely difficult to correct after launch. Most launch failures are not caused by poor products. They are caused by commercial strategies that were developed in silos, not stress-tested against market realities, and not translated into aligned cross-functional execution.
Our approach to launch excellence draws on the McKinsey Influence Model — recognising that commercial execution depends not just on having the right strategy, but on building the understanding, role modelling, reinforcing mechanisms and capability across the organisation that the strategy requires. We work across the cross-functional launch team — medical affairs, market access, commercial, patient services — mapping the patient and payer journey in detail, identifying the critical moments where the organisation's actions will shape outcomes. ADKAR informs how we build individual capability: a medical science liaison who does not know how to translate clinical data into a compelling payer narrative is a strategic asset that is not being used. A market access team that has not internalised the value story cannot defend the price.
"The question is never whether the product works. The question is whether the organisation is ready to launch it — and readiness is built in the 18 months before the approval, not after it."
The outcomes we design for are grounded in the metrics that actually matter: time to first prescription, payer coverage achieved in the first 12 months, patient support programme uptake, and the qualitative measure that is harder to track but equally important — a cross-functional team that is genuinely aligned and executing with confidence.