Cyrus is definitely playing 7D chess! ___________
Post# of 148095
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By the time Cyrus Arman completed his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 2010, he knew he wanted a job in competitive intelligence (CI). As a student, Arman did consultancy work for a friend who was launching a gene therapy company called Eos Neuroscience. During the consultancy gig, Arman worked with the company's chief operating officer, Alan Horsager, studying the company's competitive landscape.
Arman first worked to gain a thorough understanding of the medical conditions Eos was hoping to target, and then to identify the standard treatment strategies for those diseases. The next step was to search the scientific literature to find out which academic groups were studying similar approaches to treatment for the same indications. Finally, Arman looked at intellectual property issues to determine whether the company had a clear path to protecting the research with patents. With all that information in hand, Arman helped figure out what experiments were needed both for proof of concept and for grant applications.
Arman's first job after graduation was with a technical and business-development consultancy for early-stage biotech companies called CMA Consultants in Los Angeles, California. In that job, he got a taste of how research can be turned into commercial applications. Then, a little more than a year ago, he joined CI consultancy firm Deallus Group.
Although he received basic CI training on the job, there are a lot of things that "you learn through trial and error," he says. "You soon discover tactics and tools that work for you." For example, Arman learned that before approaching science opinion leaders to discuss their work and the different treatment strategies being developed, he should familiarize himself with their research. This can be daunting, Arman writes in an e-mail, because often you have just a few days to become an expert on a range of diseases, including symptoms, standards of care, and compounds in the drug-development pipeline.
Arman also engages with financial analysts because a lot of the information that goes into making investment recommendations also goes into designing a competitive business strategy. So Arman needs to be able to speak financial analysts' language. His strong sense for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, combined with business acumen, helps him make sense of the information provided by business analysts and the factors driving the monetization of products.
Arman's early experience in competitive intelligence was key, he says. He advises aspiring CI professionals to "try and find an internship in a firm, large or small. You need to find something that would differentiate you from other PhD's."
https://www.science.org/content/article/compe...-vignettes
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mightyCYDY
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