In the demanding field of pharmaceutical marketing, the world s top companies develop savvy, well-funded marketing strategies to boost sales uptake and reach peak sales in record time, according to a study by the benchmarking research firm Best Practices, LLC. The study reveals the specific marketing activities, budgets and timelines industry leaders use to turn products into blockbusters.

Derived from exclusive interviews with marketing executives, "Best Practices in Global Pharmaceutical Launches," analyzes the launch plans and marketing activities from 12 global product launches. For example:

• One benchmark partner aligned its sales force compensation plan with a product s launch in order to rapidly increase market share. The company reaped a large increase in profit from this new alignment.
• Another company describes its procedure of developing online global market research libraries that it uses to retain critical intellectual assets to leverage past lessons learned.
• An additional partner used sophisticated thought leader management systems to integrate thought leaders at different times into the development and launch cycles. This allows for varying levels of effort, activity and relationship investment at each thought leader segment.

The leading practices and managerial insights in "Best Practices in Global Pharmaceutical Launches" are drawn from one-on-one interviews and surveys with executives at 11 leading pharmaceutical companies. The study discloses:

• Marketing spending amounts by phase for some of the world s most successful pharmaceutical launches
• Global market uptake strategies and marketing timelines from top pharmaceutical companies
• New updates including lifecycle management tips and cross-functional team management best practices

"Our research has found that the top pharmaceutical companies do several things right, but no one company has perfected the pharmaceutical launch process," said Best Practices, LLC Senior Manager David Wang. "The companies that successfully implement the best practices outlined in this report could reap billion-dollar profits."