Subjects - Business

Starting a new business is always tough. You have spent hours and hours putting your Business Plan together, sorting out the financing, arranging your office and buying equipment. And the big day arrives … you ha

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

ve to get out there and secure your first customer. It all looked so easy when you were planning, but now this is real and doesn’t seem as effortless as you thought.

What practical steps can you take to ensure y

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

Examples of combination products may in

our business gets off to a flying start?

Put a Plan in Place

If you didn’t write a Business Plan (tut tut!) then putting pen to paper is your first step. You have to careful plan what you want to achieve

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

and what you are trying to do. A Plan will help crystalise your thoughts and ideas and act as a spring board for creative thought.

It also will be a useful boost when you come to review your progress against wh

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

at you set out to achieve – a cause for celebration or a kick up the backside!

The key element in your Plan is to spell out exactly who your typical customer is going to be. Are they young or old? Well off, or o

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

Combination pro

n the look out for bargains? Single or married?

Once you have clearly defined who you are after then chasing your first sale becomes easier.

E-Mail All Your Contacts

You may not think that personal frie

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

nds and family may be interested in your product or service, but don’t forget that they have friends and family as well and so can help spread the word!

E-mail every one in your address book and tell them, if th

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

ey don’t already know, that you are starting up in business and need their help. In your e-mail describe what you do and the products you offer and request that they forward it to everyone in their address book.

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

A bit ‘spammy’ I know but when such a note comes from someone you know then it doesn’t seem so bad.

For those family and friends who don’t have e-mail, call them, write to them, to officially launch your busines

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

s. Very quickly word will spread and enquiries and orders will start to flood in.

Ask For a Referral

It’s possible you may have ‘road-tested’ your business before you decided to go full time. In that cas

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

you will already have a small database of customers. Ask them if they can provide you with some names of people or businesses whom they think may be interested in what you have on offer.

A referral, or positive

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

Following aspects would a

recommendation, is a powerful and easy way to give your business a kick start. If you want, why not offer a small gift, or a discount on the next sale, for all customers who refer someone to you? This gesture wi

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ll further cement your relationship.

Tell Everyone You Meet

Be a walking advertising board for your business! Find any opportunity to tell people, especially strangers, what you do. Be enthusiastic! Have

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

a rehearsed opening which encapsulates everything about the benefits and problems your business offers and solves.

Take your business cards wherever you go and leave them all over the place! Supermarkets, resta

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

urants, shops, anywhere where people will find them.

Be a Media Star

The local newspaper or radio stations are always on the look out for stories which are of interest to the locality. Don’t expect them

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

to run a story along the lines of ‘And today, Joe Bloggs has just started in business doing …’. Your story needs to be interesting and have an unusual slant. Did you travel the world and come up with your idea wh

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ilst riding a train in India? Did you have a flash of inspiration following a shocking experience? Carry out a survey which shows that local people are crying out for a service such as yours. Think of something t

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

hat will grab the editor’s attention and this will increase your chances of appearing in print.

Build Relationships

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a sale on the first approach. Sometimes you have

.

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

to patient. A way of achieving your batch of first sales is to concentrate on building a relationship with your prospective clients. Keep in touch, remind them you are still around and, assuming you have targete

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

d correctly, they may eventually place that coveted order!

If you are about to start your business get planning right now and start to implement some of these ideas to get your new business off to a flying start

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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Although making money is a worthwhile goal, if you’re working with a client that is difficult, unappreciative or impossible to satisfy, there’s little room for fulfillment and certainly no room for satisfaction. Are you choosing the right clients?

For most small businesses, a database is the most important marketing tool. The following article discusses how to really keep track of a good database, how to systematize or automate a database marketing campaign and how to get a good prospect or mailing list.

With more and more people corresponding through e-mail, now is the time to differentiate your business by personalizing your contact with a simple and inexpensive postcard. There are so many reasons why you should send postcards regularly. They are affordable (whether homemade or purchased), inexpensive to send, fast to write and fun to receive!

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