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Last year, a trusted long-term client of ours from a large pharma company called me late on a Friday afternoon. She needed to quickly understand the opportunity around some potential new target product profiles (TPPs), and the VP of Business Development was hoping to get the results of this research -- yesterday! By the following Friday plus one, just two weeks later, we had delivered: a full qualitative KOL insights package, paired with a quantitative assessment of the market and TPPs.
That’s business development (BD) research in a nutshell: fast, focused, and impactful. And it’s why I and my colleagues at ThinkGen love this kind of work.
Unlike other market research engagements that often run six to ten weeks, BD studies are sprints. The questions are high-level and consequential, and the timeline is condensed. Typically, we’re speaking with a small group of HCPs, often KOLs, and sometimes patients too...and, when needed, layering in a quick-turn quant study. Clients ask: “Can you really turn this around in two weeks?” And our answer is 99% of the time, “Yes.”
The reason we can say that with confidence is because we’ve built deep, long-standing partnerships with a range of fielding agency partners that bring different talents and capabilities to critical endeavors like this. From large firms like M3 Global to nimble boutique shops like Connected, these partners help us recruit and interview (or survey) the right respondents in record time.
At its heart, business development research is about sizing up the market landscape and testing the waters for new assets. Pharma and biotech companies commission this work because their future depends on a steady flow of innovations entering the pipeline. These studies help answer the fundamental question: Is this asset worth pursuing?
The work usually centers on TPPs. We look at how an asset might fit into the treatment journey, what gaps in care it could address, and how HCPs and patients are likely to respond. Done well, BD research provides clarity on whether an asset has both scientific merit and commercial viability.
There are a few reasons why companies turn to us for this kind of research:
When done right, BD research doesn’t just provide data, it delivers confidence. A recent dermatology study is a good example. By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, we mapped prescribing behaviors, barriers, and unmet needs along the treatment journey. Those findings gave our client the clarity they needed to make a confident go/no-go acquisition decision.
Our methodology, which we call ThinkASAP, was built from years of running exactly these kinds of high-stakes, time-sensitive studies. We’ve proven time and again that it is possible to deliver quality insights at the speed of decision making. By running qualitative and quantitative research concurrently, maintaining senior-level focus on the problem (no learning curve, no wasted cycles), and sharing milestone updates along the way, we help clients move from kickoff to topline in about two weeks -- without sacrificing rigor or depth.
And today, ThinkASAP is more capable than ever. Every project is led by an experienced senior moderator and supported by our team of analysts, our best-in-class field department, and now ThinkAEI, our AI ecosystem. This AI capability not only accelerates fielding and analysis, but also elevates the quality of insights we deliver. With QuickTHINK, we’re able to provide interview-by-interview readouts in real time, so clients don’t have to wait until the end of fieldwork to start learning. Teams stay in a constant state of visibility throughout the project, allowing them to adjust, probe, and align as the research unfolds. In a world where speed and accuracy both matter, this combination of human expertise and AI power sets our BD research apart.
BD research is thrilling because it lives at the apex of urgency and impact. These are the moments where the right insight makes the difference between pursuing a promising asset...or walking away from a costly mistake.
Our hope is to be on our clients’ speed dial -- the “Bat phone” they pick up when they need trusted, senior-level researchers who can deliver high-quality insights, fast. We’ve proven time and again that we can execute these studies under pressure, and we love doing it.
At the end of the day, there’s nothing more satisfying than knowing our work helped a client make the right call, at the right time, for the future of their business and the patients they serve.
