Problem Statement Biopure (BPC), is a small and private developer of human (Hemopure) and animal (Oxyglobin) blood substitutes. Biopure is faced with the decision of whether to immediately launch Oxyglobin (Og) or wait until after the launch of hemapure (Hp), which will be in about two years following FDA approval. If they decide to launch they must determine their pricing strategy. The concern is that launching Oxyblobin would create an obstacle to the pricing of Hemopure, the company's initial product focus.
Market Analysis The combination of lengthy approval process of the FDA, intellectual property laws, and R&D capital requirements, poses a high entry barrier in the blood substitute markets. The human market is expected to experience moderate future growth affected by an increase in population, and in particular the proportion of older citizens. Also, the human market suffers from uneven seasonal variations in blood supply and demand. There is higher demand in summer and winter holiday seasons and this demand is exacerbated by lower donations. Although the total potential size of the human market in the US is 13.5 million units (Exhibit 1), Hemopure's long shelf life and lack of need for refrigeration makes it particularly suitable for trauma cases estimated at 2 million units.
The existing system for supplying animal blood is poor at matching animal blood types and it is relatively costly, leading to an underserved market. Veterinarians use approximately 350,000 units of blood per year in canine transfusions, all of which could be captured by Og. The potential market size is estimated at only 2.3 million (Exhibit 2). Even with the smaller demand figure, however, BPC's capacity of 300,000 would still leave some exces...
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...ghly probable since the market for human blood substitute would be under-supplied leading to higher prices and BPC would be a price taker, following the lead of Baxter. Furthermore, advertising focusing on differentiating Hp from Og should serve to ensure pricing of one product is not correlated with that of the other, minimizing accusations of excessive prices from the marketplace.
In order to maximize profits, BPC should perform its own distribution rather than use independent distributors (Exhibit 13). Aside from the cost-savings, maintaining its own sales force would allow BPC to minimize advertising costs by focusing on early adopters. As Moore explains in Crossing the Chasm (Exhibit 14), BPC would target emergency practices as early adopters, establish the product, and then cross the chasm as primary care practices recognize the advantages and begin to use Og.
Per Kalogeropoulos (2016), the company is better able to ensure product availability while managing their costs because of their latest logistics initiative. They have recently created a network of deployment centers that reduces the time between when the product leaves a supplier to when it hits the shelf at the Home Depot store which drives profits higher. Parnell (2014), relays that companies who use low-cost strategy seek distribution channels that minimize cost. Home Depot’s new logistics initiative provides the company with economies of scale and a market advantage because it adds to their low-cost
can expand through marketing ideas and ways the company can save money by not stocking up on as
BioPure Corporation, which was founded in 1984 by entrepreneurs Carl Rausch and David Judelson, is a privately owned biopharmaceutical firm specializing in the ultra purification of proteins for human and veterinary use. In 1998 Biopure pioneered the development of oxygen therapeutics using “Hemoglobin”, a new class of pharmaceuticals that are intravenously administered to deliver oxygen to the body's tissues. Biopure's two products, Hemopure for human use, and Oxyglobin for animal veterinary use, both represented a new Oxygen based treatment approach for managing patients' oxygen requirements in a broad range of potential medical applications. The factor distinguishing Biopure’s two products from other blood substitute products being developed by two possible rivals, Baxter International and Northfeild Laboratories, is that its hemoglobin based source is bovine rather than human and was derived from the blood cells of cattle. Both of Biopure’s blood substitute products were in the final stages of the approval process of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998. Oxyglobin had just received the FDA’s approval for commercial release declaring it safe and effective for medical use. Hemopure was entering final Phase 3 clinical trials and was optimistically expected to see final FDA approval for release in 1999. The FDA approval of Oxyglobin and its possible subsequent release into the veterinary market caused concern over whether the early release of Hemoglobin would impinge BioPure’s ability to price Hemopure when the product finally received approval. Given that the two products were almost identical in properties and function, it was thought that the early release of Oxyglobin would create an unrealistic price expectation for Hemopure if released first.
Harmening, D. M. (2005). Modern Blood Banking & Transfusion Practices. Philidelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
In 1954, the first organ transplant was conducted successfully in the United States. (Clemmons, 2009) Nowadays, the technology of organ transplant has greatly advanced and operations are carried out every day around the world. According to current system, organ sales are strictly prohibited in the United States. (Clemmons, 2009) However, the donor waiting list in the United States has doubled in the last decade and the average waiting time for a kidney is also increasing. (Clemmons, 2009) In the year 2007, over 70,000 patients were on the waiting list for a kidney and nearly 4500 of them died during the waiting period. In contrast to the increasing demand for kidney, organ donation has been in a decrease. (Wolfe, Merion, Roys, & Port, 2009) Even the government puts in great effot to increase donation incentives, the gap between supply and demand of organs still widens. In addition, the technology of therapeutic cloning is still not mature and many obstacles are met by scientists. (Clemmons, 2009) Hence, it is clear that a government regulated kidney market with clear legislation and quality control is the best solution to solve the kidney shortage problem since it improves the lives of both vendors and patients.
The sales leads are now centralized and accessible across branches rather than individually gathered and processed by salespeople. In standardizing customer information, it now makes the marketing teams, analytic teams, and customer managers on the same page. It creates a “friendly competition” that encourages close cooperation for all areas. One major cost that this new strategy created was the confusion of different areas in RBC. Product managers and customer managers often misunderstood what way of action was appropriate, which lead to another problem: it took more time to make decisions. A benefit of this change is that there was no fighting for resources and instead cooperation. Another benefit would be the divisional organization, which can be seen in Exhibits 3a and
The management of CBS was concerned about the growing demand of blood in Canada and this is due to several reasons such as; seasonal
Along with the concern of safety between donor and patient there is the concern from an ethical stand point. (Petersdorf). Is it ethical to pay someone for a potion of their body? This brings back the fact that compensation for blood donation is legal and actively used, and again bone marrow are “immature blood cells” which regenerate. This part of the body grows back and can really help a lot of people suffering from diseases like, leukemia, and sickle cell anemia (NIH). So shouldn’t the real question of ethics become, Why are we with holding compensation if it can potentially save more lives?
In the case study Blood for Sale, Sol Levin, the founder of Plasma International, is seen participating in a highly controversial act: buying and selling blood for profit. In this paper, I will show the advantages and cons of taking part in commercial transactions in blood from the egoistic, the utilitarian, and the Kantian perspectives as well as my stand on the company’s actions.
I. It is estimated that in the United States, every three seconds a patient needs blood
Despite an increased rate in organ transplantation from living donors, the supply and demand of recipients and donors still has not met. In an effort to further encourage and increase the number of organs available for transplant by living donors, the contemplation of an organ market has been brought up into attention (Tong, 2007). While the idea of an organ market system would theoretically improve the number of living organ ...
... will check to avoid all the risks that might occur. And according to professor Nadey Hakim, he believes that there should be a market for the organs instead of the black market (Smith, 2011). This idea will be lowering the problems of the black market or might even destroy the black market. It will be saving many lives and people will know were to go to get an organ they need that is safe without any consequences.
1. Hematal's cash flow problem limits Hematal's decision on giving further credit to the boy's family or not. It has been proved in the case that the family is very poor and won't be able to pay right away and most probably won't be able to pay anymore considering also the increasing hospitalization bills. This fact is important because Hematal will already have to consider writing off of the family's debt, which further affects the company's cash position in the future when she gives additional credit. The boy needs at least 20 more vials yet, Hematal has less than 20 vials left on stock. With this fact, I have assumed that Dr. Rini's decision should be an "all or nothing" kind of decision because anything less will not make any difference in the boy's condition considering also the fact that he needed more than 40 vials during his initial surgery, thus I conclude that the boy will die if less than 20 vials were provided. Therefore, Hematal will have to order more vials from Gamma Corp. to fill the 20 vial requirement.
Many people have heard of blood drives and blood transfusions, but a lot of people do not give blood a second thought when it comes to making a donation to an organization. There are many reasons why blood is the perfect way to give to the community, particularly if you do not have extra money for financial donations. There are so many ways to help out in the world so why not give something that you have plenty of? The American Red Cross, a nationally recognized organization, is the largest supplier of blood and blood-related products. (American Red Cross, n.d.). Even though it can be scary, it is worth it to donate blood because of the demand, the satisfaction of helping others, plus the lack of
It provides significant efficiencies in cost and delivery in exchange for minimal customization and represents a shift of operational risks from the consumer to the provider.