CASE STUDY
BioSyent inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company that sources and commercializes products for the Canadian market. The company’s strategic focus is in-licensing or acquiring innovative pharmaceutical products that have been successfully developed, are proven safe and effective, and are not currently available in Canada.
By commercializing products that already have a track record of success in other countries, BioSyent supports healthcare professionals by making effective new pharmaceuticals available to Canadian patients.
Kevin Wilson joined BioSyent in 2012 as the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. A veteran of the life sciences industry, he was charged with applying his decades of experience to help the company grow and scale.
In moving to an upstart pharma company, Kevin had a limited budget for market research. BioSyent partnered with KeyOps in 2021 to help the company maximize the return on its research investment.
THE PROBLEM:
With more than 30 years of experience working for pharmaceutical companies, Kevin Wilson is well- versed in the traditional approaches to life sciences market research.
Before joining BioSyent, he worked as a director of marketing for one of the largest global pharmaceutical brands. In this environment, he followed the standard procedures for collecting market research: Conducting large-scale quantitative research studies, qualitative interviews, and gathering physician insights through medical advisory board meetings.
But even back then, he questioned whether the value of the data collected was always worth the steep six-figure price tag.
“For me, there were so many things I intuitively knew that I didn’t need $150,000 of quantitative research to explain,” said Kevin.
Kevin found himself working with a vastly different marketing budget after making the decision to join BioSyent. While the company had a strong vision for future growth, the costly market research tactics he relied on in prior roles weren’t a feasible option.
“In the early days, decisions on spending money meant choosing between market research or samples. I couldn’t do three surveys a year and spend $150,000 on each one,” said Kevin. “But as our company and revenue grew, we could begin investing more in research.”
As BioSyent grew and expanded its portfolio to include more products, the team knew gathering physician and pharmacist insights could help inform strategic product, sales, and marketing decisions. But even when the budget was available, Kevin struggled to see the value in traditional methods. Because not only was this type of market research expensive, but the process of collecting results took three to four months.
“Traditional research wasn’t just cost-prohibitive. It didn’t deliver value for what we were spending,” he explained. “Traditional quantitative analysis can take four months to get results. Typically, you need answers before then – and by the time I did get results, there were other questions that need to be answered.”
So when Kevin learned about KeyOps from Darren Anderson – a former colleague and KeyOps’ chief commercial officer – he was eager to learn how the company could deliver on its promise of achieving faster results.
The Solution:
The KeyOps platform is built to encourage physician engagement through short, simple online interactions. This innovative, digital-first approach dramatically reduces the time-to-insight for life science companies – delivering results in as few as five days with a physician response rate that’s five times the industry average.
For a midsize pharmaceutical company like BioSyent, gaining on-demand access to physician insights helped shift the company's entire approach to market research.
Instead of commissioning one large study that would take four months to complete, BioSyent could send a series of shorter KeyOps surveys for a fraction of the cost. Not only did this reduce the budget needed to conduct market research, but it provided an opportunity to adapt each new question based on the results from previous surveys.
“What if you had questions today and in two weeks you could have answers?” said Kevin. “That quick turnaround is key, because our problem with strategies and sales is today. That’s what makes this really powerful.”
Additionally, the KeyOps team made it easy to target the exact type of physicians that mattered to BioSyent: Doctors and pharmacists who were familiar with the company’s products. If the right physicians were not already part of the KeyOps network, BioSyent could provide a list for the company to recruit respondents from.
For Kevin and BioSyent, KeyOps delivered a level of value that was missing from traditional approaches to market research. The short KeyOps surveys didn’t provide the same depth of data as a full quantitative survey. But they were directional enough to prove or disprove the team’s assumptions. This actionable data, combined with the time and cost savings generated by using KeyOps, helped the company make faster decisions with confidence.
The Outcome:
In the two years since BioSyent started working with KeyOps, the pharmaceutical company has transformed its approach to market research.
“KeyOps has allowed us to gather insights from the market – from the customers we deal with, in the way we want to deal with them,” said Kevin. “That kind of flexibility is huge for a midsize company like BioSyent.”
According to Kevin, establishing a market research partnership with KeyOps has benefitted BioSyent in several ways:
Faster insights: Rather than waiting three to four months for a traditional market research report, BioSyent can initiate a KeyOps survey and receive results in less than three weeks.
Actionable data: Fast response times empower BioSyent to make informed decisions that can have an immediate impact on the company’s sales and marketing strategies.
Reduced costs: BioSyent conducts multiple KeyOps surveys for a fraction of the cost of a single $150,000 qualitative study – making the most of the company’s limited research budget.
Expert analysis: Data from each survey is analyzed by the KeyOps team, who provide their own analysis and assumptions guided by decades of experience in the life sciences industry.
Specific targeting: KeyOps surveys are highly targeted, allowing BioSyent to generate insights from specific physician audiences.
Detailed reporting: The KeyOps platform provides direct access to survey data through an AI-powered dashboard – allowing BioSyent to conduct further analysis if needed.
“I think KeyOps belongs inside the market research consideration set for life sciences companies of any size,” said Kevin. “It doesn’t always replace large quantitative or qualitative studies, but it has a special place to support your strategy. If you use it in tandem with other methods, KeyOps is a powerful tool to validate, prove, or disprove the assumptions made in your sales and marketing plans.”
Traditional market research methods, such as engaging research firms and advisory boards, can take months to gather any useful data. That’s why we founded KeyOps: To reduce the time-to-insight for life science companies, while creating a better experience for physicians. To learn how KeyOps can help reduce your time-to-insight schedule a demo today.
