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I got a call from a friend of mine who had just joined a small company as Marketing Director. After auditing the firm’s ma

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

rketing practices, he determined that the old company name had to go. The old name too closely resembled another firm’s mo

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

Examples of combination products may in

iker and it was causing confusion in the marketplace. With new ownership at the firm, a change seemed to make sense.

He c

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

lled me looking for some ideas for a new name and I gladly helped; in fact, we came up with a new company name that could

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

e used as his URL with a dotcom suffix. All it took was 15 minutes. I was very pleased since it took me nearly six months

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

Combination pro

o come up my new book’s name First, Best, or Different; it was agonizing.

After we hung up I started to think about how a

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

name change will impact his firm. I wrote a list of all the things, little or big, that a name change might impact. The li

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

st was frightening. It started with letting all the existing customers know about the change. And, that was the easy part.

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

What about the website, the yellow pages, the trucks, the invoices, the letterhead, the signage, the business cards, the

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

ax cover page, the voicemail message, the company uniforms, the brochures, the product packaging, the shipping boxes, and

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

he product labels? It is easy to forget how much time and money it takes to build brand awareness for a company name. The

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

Following aspects would a

ost of such a change is immense.

Also, how about the old URL? Think of all the links that lead to that old URL. For most

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

irms changing a name, keeping the old URL would be critical; in fact, you would probably want to keep it for years so that

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

your old customers could find you. Often this is done with a “redirect” from the old URL to the new one.

Additionally, do

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

n’t forget about the lawyers. They need to help you with all your contracts both new and old that will need to be changed,

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

amended, and rewritten. You will also need to verify that the new name is not used by another business.

Even with all thi

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

done, you will still need to co-brand the new and old name for a long time (probably for a year) to make sure that the ol

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

customers will remember the transition. It usually reads something like “NEW NAME” (in big letters) “formerly known as ol

.

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

name” (in small letters). What this means is that you actually have two name changes to make: the transition name and the

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

the final name.

Whew! I think I had better call my friend back and ask him if he really wants to change the company name

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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Corporations have many constituents. But they seem to play to only one audience - the investment community or Wall Street. Any business is made up of workers, supervisors, managers and executives. They also have customers, suppliers and in many cases dealers or distributors. They have facilities in cities, towns and communities. Some have factories and others have only offices. But the fact is that all corporations touch the world they operate in beyond the narrow confines of where they raise money through investors - or Wall Street. So why do almost all corporations decisions revolve around how Wall Street will react? Are there alternatives?

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