Digg It - Business

In business, having competitors goes with the territory. There’s almost always someone selling the same product or service you are selling, or at least trying to solve the same customer problem

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

you solve.

Not only can competitors out-market you and steal your valuable prospects and customers, they can put you out of business if you’re not careful. Trying to fight back by out-market

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

Examples of combination products may in

ng your competitors can not only get expensive, it can be frustrating.

But there is another solution. Eliminating your competitors is the easiest way to increase your chances of business succe

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

s. And it isn’t that hard when you know what you’re doing. And, before you worry that I’m advocating violence, relax. I don’t mean literally eliminate them, in the sense of doing something “bad

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

to them.

When I say eliminate, I mean ... take them out of your prospect’s consideration set for your product or service category. Make it so your prospects ONLY think of your business, prod

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

Combination pro

uct or service when they are contemplating making a purchase. That way you get their business, instead of your competition making the sale.

What this means is if you sell widgets, you want yo

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

r prospects to only think of your widgets when they are thinking of buying widgets. This is pretty easy to do if your business is not in a competitive industry. But let’s suppose there are all

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

kinds of businesses selling what you are selling, or filling the same consumer or business need you are filling.

How can you make sure your prospects ONLY think of you — and therefore only BUY

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

from you — and not all those other companies?

Answer: By thoroughly understanding those competing businesses and then doing one of two things:

(1) Finding a position in the category you can

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

own.

This will separate you from all the other businesses and will make you uniquely qualified in the eyes of your prospect to fill their need. This usually requires finding a specific marke

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

niche you can focus on, or finding a specific product or service attribute or benefit, that is of value to your prospects, that none of your competitors can claim or are currently promoting.

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

Following aspects would a

his puts you in a class of your own and virtually eliminates the competition. No one does exactly what you do. Or in the quite the way you do it.

(2) By turning your competitors into “co-opit

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

rs.”

What the heck is a “co-opitor?” It is a competitor that you turn into a partner or a cooperator. Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with the idea of referri

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

ng business to each other?

For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club or a massage therapist. All of these practitioners are selling improved he

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

lth and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services. And they could easily refer business to each other as an added value or service to their customers.

Or, let’s say

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

you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (a market niche). You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

focus on large corporations. If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche, and to refer business outside your niche to the partner, you both win.

You can partner

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

with other businesses in your exact business in this manner, by identifying niches, by geographic area served, or by size or type of clients served.

And you can partner with businesses in diff

.

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

rent categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers.

There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

trategies to significantly reduce their competition. So figure out which strategy fits your business best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year.

© 2005 Debbie LaChus

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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