Choosing Desirable Co-Promotion Partners: The Foundation of A Successful Alliance

Choosing compatible partner companies and working with them in a cooperative manner creates a sound base for a successful co-promotion effort, leading to increased sales and mutual benefit for all companies involved. Selecting the right partner can be a very difficult step for pharmaceutical companies, which are highly competitive by nature. Pharmaceutical companies interested in co-promoting can use this information to gain a greater understanding of the critical factors involved in selecting a compatible partner, which will enable them to enter into a healthy, profitable long-term relationship. This 11-page document details the selective criteria that top pharmaceutical companies use for evaluating potential co-promotion partners, and, once a partnership has begun, the initial steps both companies must take to reach early agreement and develop a friendly, working relationship.

Key Topics

• Articulation of the rationale behind the co-promotion effort
• Partner evaluation
• Important details for negotiating the contract
• Delineation of each partner's roles and responsibilities, and other governance details
• Incentives and performance management

• Empower senior leadership to forge the initial business relationship.
  *Benchmark partners admit that pharmaceutical companies are inherently competitive and so senior leadership must articulate the reasons for the co-promotion in terms of both organizational and individual objectives. For instance, a co-promotion expands the reach and frequency of sales calls in order to increase the organization’s sales goals.
• Seek partners that want to co-promote and whose culture, strategy and needs fit those of your company.
  *One successful co-promotion manager determines the probable success of your partnership by pitching the drug to your partner as you would to a customer. This is an easy litmus test to evaluate the compatibility of sales approaches and, more generally, corporate cultures.
• Seek to identify and address early key competitive issues relative to both companies.
  *Veteran managers state it is critical to identify areas where you agree to continue competing and to set certain rules of engagement for competition. Without such discussion and consensus, competitive interactions on other products can damage the co-promotion partnership.
  

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