Protege Biomedical: Finding the Right Market for Medical Innovat

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Protege Biomedical: Finding the Right Market for Medical Innovation

Publication Date: September 30, 2020

Source: North American Case Research Association (NACRA)

Two young, Minnesota based, entrepreneurs set a goal to grow their blood clotting innovation into a robust medical products business. They had, somewhat serendipitously, discovered an idea with real market potential and as a result had made surprisingly good progress in developing a patented product. They had successfully launched a small test in the veterinary market and had been informed that they were only a few months away from gaining FDA approval for use in human markets. To launch their long-term strategy, they needed to answer two key questions. First, how big were the human and animal markets relative to each other? And second, should they continue to build a position in the veterinary market, or should they focus on launching into the human wound treatment market? If so, which segment of the market was the most strategically attractive considering the resources at their disposal? Because of the likelihood of full FDA approval, they were under pressure to bring a clears and defensible strategy to their board within the next 2-3 months. Furthermore, as nascent entrepreneurs, they realized that they would have to come off the fence and propose a strategy in advance of having complete data, while their understanding of the market and entrepreneurial strategy was still emerging.