Digg It - Business

In my workshops and presentations I am often asked, “What’s the best business opportunity to go into today?”

My response is pretty much always the same. “It all depends on what you want to do, how you want to spend your time, what resource

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

s you have available, your background, and your objectives. These are just a few of the important questions that have to be answered before one can determine the best business opportunity.”

And then I watch the person - and everybody in th

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

e room give me the blank stare that says - “So what am I supposed to do with that? I want an answer that points me in the right direction. I want to know what I should do. I want to know what you would be looking to do.”

Okay. From my pers

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

pective I say distribution is the key to success. Focus on the distribution of a product or service before you do anything else.

What do I mean by distribution?

Distribution - in this instance - is what gets the product or service in fron

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

t of the person or business that will buy it.

How do you get your new life preserver in the West Marine stores or all of the boat retailers or all of the marine catalogues? How do you get the veterinarians to buy or recommend your drug (in

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

Canada they act as resellers) and then how do you get their clients to buy it? How do you get Home Shopping Network to buy your product and how do you help HSN get its audience to call up and buy?

Let’s take this question of the “best” bu

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

siness opportunity and my suggestion that distribution is key one step further. Suppose you, or someone you know, is:

a) contemplating buying or investing in an on-going business, or b) ready to spend money to develop an idea into a produc

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

t or service for the market.

The most important issue to understand is how the product or service gets or will get in front of somebody who will buy it. And if that person is not the consumer or user of the product or service - but is in t

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

he middle - how do you get the person who will use it - to take action and buy it? If the answer to this question is not clear, if the method does not result in cash in the checkbook with only acceptable exceptions that are well understood

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

by both parties and if the method does not have a strong likelihood of continuing success, then the business will have problems.

Did you know that in the book selling business, the typical terms of sale between the retailer (bricks and mor

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

tar type) and the publisher (the author if they are self publishing) give the retailer the right to return all unsold books for full credit - for an unlimited time? There are stories of publishers getting hit with millions of dollars of ret

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

urns as long as a year after the book was “sold” to the retailer and because the publisher did not have the cash to cover the returns - it had to declare bankruptcy. Jeff Bezo saw the flaw in the system, realized that there was a lot of mon

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ey to be made distributing books, and now Amazon has everyone copying it.

Therefore as you or your friend proceeds through the decision making process be certain all the distribution issues are covered.

Who are the key buyers and will the

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

y remain the key buyers? The Internet has put many intermediaries out of business or drastically reduced their importance. Stock brokers and travel agents are almost unnecessary, will real estate agents be next to fall? Anybody buying a bu

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

siness or designing a product or service that serves or depends on intermediaries may have a limited future.

Suppose you are considering buying a business or developing a product that serves the auto industry. The typical approach to reach

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ing these customers was through manufacturers’ representatives. With the pressure to reduce costs steadily increasing what’s the first cost the buyers in the auto industry look to cut? The commission paid to the reps.

If you are counting o

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

n reps to build your business you better figure another way to go.

If you own a manufacturer’s representative business, your future may be dim.

But wait, I said distribution was key … is it? Yes!

How about convincing companies in the aut

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

o industry (that don’t compete) to hire you to exclusively look for new products to serve their specific needs? Find electrical products for one client, fluids management products for another, finish products and application equipment for a

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

third. Create relationships on the other side of the table and get paid from a different party.

Maybe expand vertically. Instead of being a broker of products why not buy the best ones and resell them to the best customers? Make a profit

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

instead of a commission.

I think distribution is fertile ground. Those in it now may not be able to see the opportunities on the flip side and they may be willing to sell all or a part of what they have for less than you can make it worth.

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Business Expense Reports are the records of all the expenses incurred by the employees, top level to supervisory level, during their business visits on behalf of the companies. For this purpose, the business organizations should have standard business expense report forms. Nowadays, most of the companies are implementing web-based expense report software like Expense Management Automation (EMA), which automates and quickens the submission, approval and reimbursement processes of the business expense reports.

Having your logo clean and ready to be reproduced is worth the time and initial investment. Check your options and get it done right the first time.

Somewhere along the way people have come to expect a rather large degree of dissatisfaction at work but it does not have to be that way. Sure it may seem like a muddy and murky road to go down right now but wouldn't you rather go through a short time of trial and uncertainty than a lifetime of misery in a job you hate?

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