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You are facing the decision-makers who can put a lucrative contract in your pocket. You are about to get your PowerPoint presentation rolling. It's a make-or-break moment. They have been pitched to with PowerPoint from other c

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

ompanies with big reputations and experienced sales departments but they are interested in you and your company. Will the weeks you have put into your preparation pay off?

Let's rewind a few days and look over your shoulder..

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

Examples of combination products may in

.

While we watch, you fire up PowerPoint and head for your previous best presentation. Skip to slide 2. It is headed: 'We have the best solution for your needs'. Great start! But then you begin to think...they don't know us y

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

et, so I'd better tell them who we are and what we have done for other clients. You delete the out-of-date bullets and start typing. Bullet 1... Bullet 2... Ah! You hit Bullet 8, and the text shrinks so that it is too small to

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

read. Easily solved! You start a new PowerPoint slide and carry on.

Three slides later and you've completed the list. What's next? A diagram! You set to work on slide five...

Lets press 'Stop' on that scene and consider the

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

Combination pro

slippery slope you are on.

PowerPoint's slippery slope

You moved off down the slope by making the assumption that because bullet points are the default slide mode in PowerPoint, they are the way to go. A qu

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

ick web search will find you lots of reasons for not using bullet lists (or PowerPoint at all) but the most important is that audiences have become 'blind' to bullet lists and switch off when they see one. Its not called 'Deat

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

h by PowerPoint' for nothing!

You picked up speed with the second assumption, that PowerPoint is easy. It's a common trap when people have had little or no training. And most of us haven't.

You rushed towards the PowerPoint

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

abyss when you went off the point of the objective and turned it into information about your company; not about your potential client's needs.

PowerPoint success factors

Lets rewind to a different scenario..

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

.

Long before firing up PowerPoint you consulted colleagues. Together, you constructed a shortlist of reasons why the company you will be pitching to may be letting the contract. You've identified how your company can meet th

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

ir objectives in a unique and advantageous way. Based on this, you've mapped out the structure of your PowerPoint presentation. Its also what you did to put your successful proposal together.

Yes! Your first PowerPoint succes

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

Following aspects would a

s factor was the realization that your presentation does not need to tell them anything new. Its purpose is to remind them why they were interested enough in your proposal to ask to see you. Watching you manage your PowerPoint

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

gives them an opportunity to assess you and to prepare questions. It's a test masquerading as an information-giving session!

Your second PowerPoint success factor comes when you recognize that the people you are presenting t

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

o are not interested in what your company has done for other clients. They only care about whether you will solve their problem better than anyone else. So put your company information in a handout, not in your presentation.

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

Your third PowerPoint success factor is that your presentation is going to keep your audiences attention and focus them on your message with more impact than your competitors. To do this you have invested in some good

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

PowerPoint training. It is not difficult to find, but be aware that the learning curve has only just started when you are taught how to apply PowerPoint animations!

Eight stages of personal PowerPoint development
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
rong>

There are at least eight stages of development people go through if they are persistent with PowerPoint:
1) Using Microsoft wizards and templates.
2) Introducing animations and graphic elements, such as clip a
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
rt.
3) Discarding clip art in favor of photos.
4) Experimenting with PowerPoint's more advanced features, such as multiple template masters.
5) Going minimalist or rejecting PowerPoint altogether for fear of get
.

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
ting it wrong.
6) Introducing storytelling techniques to structure presentations.
7) Developing new graphic approaches to the expression of ideas.
8) Getting right the balance between 5, 6 and 7.

If you can get
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
to the sixth stage your confidence will be greatly increased and so will your chances of having 'make' rather than 'break' PowerPoint moments.

Get to the eighth stage and you will be head and shoulders above your competitors

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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Digg It - PowerPoint Presentation-Will You Slide to a Make-or-Break Moment?

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