Pricing and Reimbursement Risk and Opportunity in Pharmaceutical Deal Making

In this special interview, Fintan Walton talks to independent pharmaceutical consultant, Nigel Borshell, the author of a new report, Pricing and Reimbursement Risk and Opportunity in Pharmaceutical Deal Making. They discuss the importance of considering pricing and reimbursement (P&R) issues within pharmaceutical deal making.

Nigel reminds us that, with the pressure to contain healthcare costs being felt worldwide, many governments have introduced pharmacoeconomic appraisals to determine whether drugs deliver value. What is apparent, explains Nigel, is that the younger biotech companies don’t have the same capabilities as big pharma companies when it comes to considering P&R factors for their development portfolios. Indeed, P&R should be at the heart of biotech companies’ development strategies from the earliest possible stage and revised as development is progressed.

In the interview, Nigel also tells us about his discussions with government P&R organisations, who complain that they are not receiving the right price-related information from pharmaceutical companies. Reassuringly, as Nigel’s research has uncovered, it is not that the prices are necessarily too high, rather that the justification is not presented to them.

About Nigel Borshell

Nigel is an independent biotechnology consultant. Following his graduation in Applied Biology in 1972 Nigel undertook postgraduate research at The National Hospital, Queen Square, London, investigating the neurochemistry of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). He moved to the commercial environment in the late 1970s, working his way up to the General Manager role for the UK operation for drug monitoring specialist company Syva. He was appointed UK Managing Director of the Hoechst division Behring Diagnostics in 1994 and, following the merger of US company Dade with Behring in 1998, his role was expanded to Commercial Director Northern Europe for the IVD multinational Dade Behring. More recently Nigel has worked as Director of European Business Development for Cepheid, a California-based biotechnology company specialising in transportable molecular biology detection technology. Currently he is an independent consultant and is engaged in early stage product valuation projects and writing specialist reports for the pharmaceutical industry.

Nigel is the author of PharmaVentures’ newest report, Pricing and Reimbursement Risk and Opportunity in Pharmaceutical Deal Making.