New approach to vital pricing issues

Announcement of new service offering in pricing and reimbursement from Bridgehead Technologies Ltd, an international healthcare consultancy company.

Bridgehead Technologies Ltd has announced that Jim Furniss, formerly of the UK Department of Health, has joined to advise pharmaceutical and medical device companies on pricing and reimbursement policy.
   
His appointment adds to a team of senior industry specialists, based in Bridgehead Technologies UK and Swiss offices. Advice on all aspects of pricing, including health economics, outcomes research, financial modelling and negotiations can now be handled in-house by one team headed by Jim.

Manage commercial impact

Jim Furniss says that the future wont be any easier than the current difficult environment:

" Governments will continue to look for new ways of controlling prices and squeezing pharmaceutical expenditure. The solution is to plan early. With global pressures on pricing and re-imbursement, and increasing European harmonisation, companies have a commercial responsibility to protect profits by proper planning and effective implementation of pricing policies."

Make partnerships, not enemies

However it does not have to be war. Often lack of personal contact with officials or failure to understand their constraints leads industry to treat them as enemies. But despite their need to budget, Governments and health insurance schemes do have health gain as the number one priority. Competitors are the true enemy".

Integration of approach

As Bridgehead Director, Tim Fitzgerald points out much of the expertise which has been developed in our established areas of due diligence, project evaluation and valuation, such as financial modelling and primary market research, are equally important for companies seeking to establish optimal European and global pricing and reimbursement strategies."

Where Bridgehead stands out is in our ability to combine these tools with our understanding of European pricing, reimbursement and parallel trade issues and hands-on reimbursement negotiation experience, from both the industry and government perspective, and Jim adds significantly to this".

For further information about this new Pricing and Reimbursement Service
call Tim Fitzgerald or Jim Furniss at the UK office on +44 (0) 1664 503700 or email

fitzgerald@bridgehead.uk.com or furniss@bridgehead.uk.com

For general information about Bridgehead Technologies visit www.bridgehead.uk.com

Backgrounders:

Jim Furniss:

At the Department of Health Jim headed the Pharmaceutical Industry Branch and represented the UK on pharmaceutical issues at the European Commission.
Jim has a detailed understanding of pharmaceutical policy issues throughout Europe and elsewhere as well as a practical knowledge of Company-Government relations in the field of drug price reimbursement.
Jim joins Bridgehead from his position as Senior Vice President at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy where he led the successful pharmaceutical policy and European reimbursement practice for 5 years.

Other Pricing Experts at Bridgehead Technologies:

Chris Neild

Formerly with Fisons/RPR (now Aventis) in central planning roles and European and USA subsidiary operational and General Management roles. In the USA he was responsible for all pricing and health economic matters. He is an economist and fluent in French and German.

Tim Fitzgerald

Formerly in senior commercial and management positions with Hoechst Marion Roussel and Aventis Pharma in Europe and the Middle East, with policy input in many areas and direct negotiation experience in cardiovascular, antibiotics and diabetes. He is a biologist, is fluent in Portuguese and has a good understanding of German.

Yann Wegmuller

Formerly a Health Economist at Roche and now Manager of Bridgehead Technologies Swiss office. He is a biologist and is fluent in French.

Other services of Bridgehead Technologies include:

Bridgehead has an excellent track record of supporting companies in the biomedical field in strategic investment, R & D planning, commercialisation and marketing decisions, through its own staff and a network of key associates across Europe and provides:
•   product and technology assessment and expert reports
•   market research, assessment and forecasting
•   strategy and planning
•   licensing and business development
•   decision support, opportunity evaluation and portfolio management
•   intellectual property strategy review and development
•   recruitment
•   interim management