The board at Verona Pharma was taking the steps necessary to take its chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) drug to market years ahead of its launch in 2024. This long term view was one of the details shared by Verona’s Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Martin during our recent webinar “Going Solo: What’s Driving the Biotech Boost?”. Evaluate was delighted to welcome Chris, alongside webinar regulars Daniel Chancellor and Melanie Senior to discuss the launch of COPD therapy Ohtuvayre and what drove its success.

While the majority of biotechs ultimately out-license their lead assets or are snapped up by larger players, Verona is one of a small but growing group of biotechs that have successfully taken their drug all the way to market. Our goal in this webinar was to analyze the changing market forces that are making this challenge more feasible, and to understand the reality of making it happen.

Here are three things we learned in the webinar but I urge you to listen to the full discussion in the on-demand version which is available here.

1. Time, planning and funding are critical. Chris discussed the fact that Verona began developing a commercial mindset well before Ohtuvayre reached Phase 3 trials to give the company time to shape and understand the market. This allowed the newly-formed commercial team the opportunity to plan according to the results of that trial. Ultimately, the most important of this trio is funding and Chris discussed the way that Verona gated funding for very early stage commercial activity, as well as for the trial itself.
2. Hire the right people at the right time. Verona built out their commercial team carefully, adding layers aligned to milestones around clinical readouts during Phase 3. This avoided overtaxing the organization with cost too early. Chris also ensured that he hired people who could wear many hats because flexibility is key in those early stages. By recruiting team members with experience in multiple areas; finance, forecasting, commercial operations and more, they were able to cover a lot of critical ground with a low headcount.
3. “Always do the work as if you’re going to commercialize”. For me, this was the key quote from Chris. He accepted that there will always be M&A opportunities for biotechs, particularly as loss of exclusivity looms for the bigger companies. However, optionality is critical and he recommended that any biotech plans to go it alone because this will always maximize value, whatever path your company ultimately takes.

There is so much more that we covered in this webinar; what comes next after your first launch? How can biotechs navigate these uncertain times? How do build a global plan for regions such as Europe and Asia? The only sensible option is to dive into the full recording and settle in for a really interesting discussion and some critical biotech insights.

The on-demand version of the webinar is available here and you can access the report that investigates the tailwinds behind biotechs’ growing share of new launches here.

You can also find our full webinar back catalogue as well as register for upcoming events on biotech industry insights here.