Main Subject - Business

Some years ago I joined a chamber of commerce with the goal of rubbing shoulders with powerful corporate decision-makers and establishing my consulting value, soaking up many new clients in the process like warm gravy at Thanksg

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

iving dinner. The morning I headed out for my first chamber breakfast, however, my business partner called me to report that our bank had just canceled all its merchant credit card accounts following a decision to get out of tha

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

Examples of combination products may in

business. At that time, I was running a seminar business which heavily depended upon credit card sales. Suddenly I had lost a very lucrative conduit of revenue.

Literally minutes later, stunned and feverishly ruminating about

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

hat we would do to prevent a potential catastrophe, I sat tolerating my new chamber’s “member spotlights.” Reps from member businesses stood up for a quick minute or two, described their companies and the services they offered t

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

their fellow members. One local bank concluded its service litany with a folksy, “So come down and see us sometime. We love doing business with our fellow chamber members.”

The chamber’s director then exhorted everyone that “I

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

Combination pro

’s good to do business with other members.” Suddenly I realized this new “family” I’d joined might be the answer to my current problem (and prayers). At the break, I approached the bank rep, explained my situation, got an encour

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

ging response, and found myself at the end of a meeting with this rep that very same day with a new merchant account squarely in place, all courtesy of the fast action of this new chamber friend. Though I had come in looking to

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

FIND business, I’d come out in total awe of something better: the huge value offered by chambers in terms of providing resources that their member companies sincerely need. I had become someone else’s new customer but was very h

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

ppy about it.

Over the ensuing four years, though I did pick up a few clients here and there, I never forgot the lesson: that access to a ready, willing-to-help business family afforded me a greater value than I could have ever

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

predicted. Joseph J. Bevilacqua, President/CEO of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce (Lawrence MA), explains it this way: “Chambers are indeed a great way for companies to find other companies to BUY FROM. They can help y

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

u locate all sorts of ordinary needs, like paper supplies, restaurants, hotels for visiting customers. That's a key point of how a chamber works: it’s essentially a B2B network.”

Chamber devotees also say that entrepreneurs and

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

Following aspects would a

executives can benefit from meeting the many buyers and users of you’re their products/services that compose the typical chamber, based on its typical audience of peers outside each individual member’s own industry. This broaden

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

both horizons and connections. Hearing high-powered guest speakers, for example, affords the opportunity to meet not only that speaker but lots of other top execs who come to hear the speaker as well.

Other benefits? Try this

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

ist: health care insurance, auto insurance discounts, discounts on a variety of many other goods and services. A chamber member once told me, “It’s an attractive arena for doing interesting volunteer work as well.”

So with all

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

this good stuff, could there be any downside?

Chamber people do agree on one pitfall: if you lack the willingness to show up, it’s not for you. “Joining a chamber could be a waste of time if you're not able to put some effort i

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

to it,” admits Andrew Olmsted, Managing Director, Cambridge Innovation Partners, and a Cambridge Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce member. “One needs to evaluate whether the benefit will be worth the effort. But that's of course

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

what you must do with any business activity!”

Others echo like sentiments, remarking that chamber members reap only what they sow. Socializing, networking and rolling up one’s sleeves to get vigorously involved are requisites.

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

Don't expect to walk out of your first meeting more contacts and new customers than you know what to do with,” warns Cambridge (MA) Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Lucey. “It's like a health club in that way: Joi

.

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

ing doesn't do anything, you have to also do the work.”

Beyond that chamber folks insist benefits far outweigh everything else, especially with chambers gearing themselves intently to our high tech times. “Lots of people still

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

hink chambers function like a 1950s ‘downtown organization’ but that’s no longer true,” explains Joe Bevilacqua. “Now we’re fast-moving, technology-driven, growing, inclusive, results-driven, accountable, and oriented to action.

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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