Healthcare Practice Area

Overview

In health care today, scientific and technological frontiers are expanding at unprecedented rates—even as economic and financial pressures shrink profit margins, intensify competition, and constrain the funds available for investment. Radical shifts are transforming how science understands and treats disease; how health care players specialize, partner, and compete; and the many ways patients increasingly view their role as consumers of their own health care.

Consequently, health care players throughout the industry must confront difficult choices. The players—the developers, manufacturers, and distributors of health care products as well as the payers and the providers that deliver health care services—that take aggressive steps now will find themselves better positioned for survival and ultimately success in the years ahead.

Our Practice

BCG's Health Care practice enjoys a long tradition of pioneering new concepts and formulating novel business strategies. This tradition began in the 1980s, when our work on disease management helped define an approach to health care delivery that broke the compromise between cost effectiveness and improved outcomes.

The tradition has continued through our comprehensive examination of the future of the biopharmaceutical industry and the impact of changing technologies on business realities and strategy in the health care industry. Today it is manifest in our exploration of whether R&D productivity in the biopharmaceutical sector can be enhanced, our work with clients in the increasingly critical area of pharmaceutical sales and marketing, and other work.

Our broad base of clients includes institutions across the entire spectrum of the health care industry, including the world's major pharmaceutical and biotech companies, producers of medical devices and technology, payers, and providers. Whether working with drug companies, technology players, national health systems, managed care organizations, academic medical centers, or hospitals, we share with all our clients the same deep insights into the business of health care and the same commitment to excellent results.

Industries Within the Practice

BCG’s Health Care practice covers three segments:

• Biopharma
  Covering biotech and pharmaceutical clients on topics across the value chain, from research and development, to manufacturing, commercialization, and a broad range of support functions and technologies. Our client list includes the leading pharma and biotech companies, the global generic challengers, the leading-edge innovators, and large over-the-counter players and retailers.
  
  
• Medical Technologies
  Supporting medical device manufacturers, medical diagnostic, and medical equipment players. With the ongoing convergence of diagnostics and treatment options toward personalized health care, this segment is growing rapidly and includes some of the world’s most innovative companies.
  
  
• Health Care Services
  Covering the institutions in the health care landscape that play a crucial role in the ultimate delivery of health care: the health care providers (hospitals, physicians, and academic institutions) and the payer/health insurance organizations (managed care organizations, government, and employer health plans, etc)

Recent Projects

• Development of an aggressive growth strategy in India for a major pharmaceutical company
  The project team designed a tailor-made breakthrough growth strategy for each of the client’s key products, with a strong focus on creating a sustainable competitive position in the therapeutic segments they serve. The project will result in the client organically quadrupling of sales and profitability in less than five years.
  
  
• Building an Indian growth and pricing strategy for the specialty portfolio of a biotechcompany
  The team used in-depth prescriber and patient research to develop a rapid product-growth strategy. Several pricing, marketing tactics, and competitive scenarios were evaluated to define the optimal plan going forward. This strategy will result in more than 30% annual growth of the clients’ portfolio.
  
  
• Identifying research and development opportunities in India for a major pharmaceutical client
  The BCG and client team worked closely together to identify the most attractive and suitable offshoring opportunities in the pharma research and development space, and to find a successful business model to pursue these opportunities. Through a multitude of vendor interviews and visits, client discussions and risk-benefit evaluations, the team charted an approach to R&D in India that will yield several hundred million dollars in value to the client over a five-year time frame.
  
  
• Developing a transformational Indian growth strategy for a global pharma company
  This project investigated which paradigm shifts in the client’s business model, product portfolio, and overall strategy can allow the organization to drastically change its trajectory in India, and significantly enhance the value created for the global company. The project touched upon all aspects of the business, including commercial operations, Indian manufacturing, discovery, and development activities.
  
  
• Benchmarking of sales force effectiveness for a wide range of pharma companies operating in India.
  This project, conducted in collaboration with the Indian Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers, analyzed how the sales force productivity of companies in India can be improved. Implementing best practices will allow average performers to double their productivity in 18 to 24 months—leading to double-digit top- and bottom-line improvement.
  

People
 
Bart Janssens is the leader of the Health Care practice area in India.