GLG Helps Cubist Reach for Next Blockbuster

Cubist Pharmaceuticals

"Gerson Lehrman Group has helped extend the scope of our Corporate Development team. In addition, the input we get from the experts in the GLG Councils gives us greater confidence that we are allocating our human capital to opportunities that have legs."

Aaron Pelta,
Manager, Corporate Development, Cubist Pharmaceuticals

With headlines trumpeting a rise in drugresistant "super bugs," Cubist Pharmaceuticals' 2003 launch of CUBICIN®* (daptomycin for injection) met a pressing public health need. CUBICIN has proven effective against certain bacteria that had outsmarted traditional treatments, and has treated more than 250,000 patients to date for serious skin and bloodstream infections. In dollar terms, CUBICIN* has been the most successful intravenous antibiotic launch in US history.

The CUBICIN success is enabling Cubist to address other unmet medical needs. The company discovers, develops, and commercializes novel antibiotics and other treatments for use in acute care environments.

The challenge: finding the next blockbuster

To develop new business opportunities, Cubist relies in part on in-licensing–the practice of acquiring rights to develop and commercialize drugs controlled by other companies. Inlicensing and M&A complement Cubist's in-house discovery and development activity, and are expected to remain part of the lifeblood of Cubist's business. Cubist's Corporate Development team, in turn, has responsibility for identifying promising pipeline products, thoroughly investigating those products, and rejecting products that are not a good fit. "We are approached with many opportunities," explains Aaron Pelta, Manager, Corporate Development for Cubist. "Although many hold promise, some are not worth pursuing for strategic or technical reasons. Just as important as the deals we do are the deals that we don't do."

The Cubist Corporate Development challenge is complicated by:

• Diverse product opportunities
• Urgency to identify the most promising deals for deeper analysis and potential action
• Heavy workload created by a high volume of opportunities

To address these challenges, the team draws on the expertise of primary sources–typically physicians in relevant fields. However, committing the necessary time to the process of finding, engaging, and contracting experts proved difficult for Cubist's busy Corporate Development team.

The GLG-Cubist partnership

To expand its capabilities, Cubist's Corporate Development team selected Gerson Lehrman Group. Through GLG, Cubist obtained access to:

• The GLG Healthcare Councils, a membership-based organization of more than 60,000 expert physicians, researchers, scientists, and healthcare industry executives.
• A dedicated GLG Research Manager (RM), who draws upon her familiarity with the GLG Councils and her industry expertise (including a doctorate in pharmacy) to help Pelta and his teammates leverage the GLG Healthcare Councils to solve their business problems.

Making the match

Once the GLG RM receives a request from Cubist, she utilizes GLG's relationships and proprietary search technologies to assemble a customized panel of relevant experts from the GLG Councils. The proposed Council Members confirm by email that Cubist's selected topics are within their areas of expertise, and do not pose any conflicts for them.

Typically, Cubist's GLG RM assembles the expert panel within 48 hours. She then forwards the Council Members' profiles, contact details, and comments to Cubist. Cubist selects Council Members with whom to consult, and GLG pays the Council Members for their time.

Through this process, GLG has eliminated many logistical barriers to expert consulting. "In terms of finding the right people, the success rate has been 75% or higher. There's no doubt that, from a convenience and sheer logistics management perspective, working with GLG is much easier than finding experts on our own," remarks Pelta. "GLG saves us time and effort in lining up experts." Pelta characterizes GLG client service as excellent. He emphasizes, "Our GLG RM is knowledgeable and very responsive to our needs."

High-quality contacts

Pelta and his team use the GLG Councils to reach practicing physicians who can speak to their day-to-day experiences as well as key opinion leaders with highly relevant expertise. For instance, when evaluating an opportunity for a product used in the Intensive Care Unit setting, GLG facilitated phone consultations with a Council Member who authored the American Thoracic Society's practice guidelines for the therapeutic area and who was well-positioned to evaluate the product and its feasibility.

Based on his experiences, Pelta affirmed, "The GLG Council Members are of the highest caliber."

"GLG is highly integrated with our Corporate Development process."

Aaron Pelta,
Manager, Corporate Development, Cubist Pharmaceuticals

Integrating GLG to achieve greater scope and efficiency

Working with GLG has allowed Cubist to expand the scope of opportunities that it evaluates. Pelta reports the change as follows: "Now, when Cubist meets a less familiar opportunity, we leverage the GLG Councils. And sometimes, when we do have in-house expertise, we use GLG-supplied experts to confirm hypotheses."

Incorporating GLG Council Member input has become well integrated with the team's evaluation process. "Working with GLG enables Cubist to be confident earlier that an opportunity is worth committing our human capital towards, because we've had that early validation from the GLG Council Members." As Pelta notes, "This is especially important for a busy team such as ours."

* CUBICIN is a registered trademark of Cubist Pharmaceuticals.