Advice You - Business

One of your greatest obstacles in operating a successful annual fund is thinking of it as an annual

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

fund.

The annual fund is so named because it runs for 12 months. Not because you are suppos

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ed to solicit gifts only once a year. In direct mail fundraising, the most important gift is not th

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

first, but the second. The majority of people who respond to a direct mail appeal give once and ne

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ver again. Your goal is to convert these one-time donors into repeat donors.

And you can’

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

t do that if you wait 12 months before asking a one-time donor to give again. If you send just one

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

irect mail appeal a year, you don’t have an annual fund. You have an expense fund. All you are goin

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

g to do is lose money.

One direct mail fundraiser I know says his greatest challenge is pers

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

uading management to abandon what he calls the "annual fund" mentality. He sees it as the greatest

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

bstacle to acquiring the second gift. I agree.

If you only ask for a gift once a year, or an

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

nually, you will likely see your donors fall away at rates of 60 percent and higher.

You n

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

eed to solicit direct mail gifts more than once a year for a number of vital reasons:

1. You

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

can’t remember what you were doing on this day 12 months ago, and neither can your donors. The way

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

to stay in their memory is to stay in their mailbox.

2. Donors give for many reasons (altrui

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

sm, compassion, guilt), but the main reason is that someone asked them for a gift.

3. Frie

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ds stay in touch. Your goal in direct mail fundraising is not to raise a dollar but to retain a don

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

or. You are after their friendship first, then their finances. And you can’t expect to raise money fr

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

om people that only hear from you once a year.

At my direct mail fundraising agency, we coun

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

el our clients to mail four appeals a year at a minimum, plus four newsletters, for a total of eigh

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

t mailings at the least. Any healthy annual giving program requires at least eight mailings.

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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