Mission and Principles
Successfully strategizing and investing in the life sciences arena through the MAKVIA way
MAKVIA facilitates successful strategies and investments in the field of life sciences.
We bring a uniquely holistic amalgam of science, management consulting,
biotechnology industry and investment banking experience to our strategy, due
diligence and valuation assignments. We collaborate closely with our clients to
satisfy their individual needs. Our communication style is frank and to the point: we
tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you may want to hear. This is
the foundation for the trust in and the credibility of everything we do. We strive for
long-term partnerships with our clients.
About MAK
Marcus A. Koch, PhD, CFA
Marcus A. Koch, PhD, CFA, is MAKVIA's managing director and principal consultant. He brings 16
years of professional experience in strategy consulting, the biopharmaceutical industry and
investment banking. He strives to enable his clients to make successful strategies and
informed investments in the life sciences arena (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical
technology, digital health).
Marcus has a uniquely holistic approach to strategy, due diligence and valuation, effectively
leveraging the four pillars of his diverse background, i.e., (1) his profound scientific
formation in pharmaceutical sciences, medicinal chemistry, market access and health
economics; (2) five years of top management consulting at Bain & Company and Booz & Company up to the rank of
project leader and focused on life sciences; (3) seven years of hands-on
biopharmaceutical industry experience at Amgen in strategic planning, marketing, sales
and medical affairs at corporate and affiliate level; and (4) three years of investment
banking as a senior pharma equity research analyst in a top ranked team at UBS, covering
European pharma and biotech stocks and publishing extensively on health systems and
market access dynamics in the US, Europe, China, and Japan.
Thus, Marcus' diverse background and professional experience enable him to effectively
generate and amalgamate insights from different disciplines and viewpoints, leading to
thorough assessments as a solid basis for strategy development and any investment
decision.
Forecasting suite
We apply a broad toolbox of methods to forecast the commercial potential of health technologies
Market access enabled forecasting
Dynamic patient flow simulation
Top-down market modeling
Forecasting based on commercial analogy
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Convential forecasting approaches often fail to capture market access barriers (e.g., formulary management, patient consumerism, etc.), which may lead to unrealistically high sales forecasts
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MAKVIA has tacked a "market access module" onto the backbone of a classical epidemiological forecasting logic
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Careful parameterization is essential to reflect the evaluated product's characteristics and requires in-depth research
Dynamic patient flow simulation
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Some drugs increase survival and extend the prevalent patient pool over time, which is not captured by static modeling approaches
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Dynamic patient flow simulations or Markov chain models across different health states and lines of treatment allow to follow patients through treatment
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Even "pragmatic" models can become quite complex; careful parameterization is key
Top-down market modeling
Forecasting based on commercial analogy
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Classical approach for drugs in established markets based on market size, growth and share
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Markets may be segmented along several dimensions (e.g., mode of administration, drug class, modality, region, etc.) as appropriate to fully understand a health technology's commercial potential
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Requires in-depth market knowledge, extensive secondary research, business acumen and sometimes triangulation of multiple sources
Forecasting based on commercial analogy
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"Similar," already marketed drugs are used to model commercial potential and uptake dynamics – analogue forecasts may be further adjusted to reflect the specific properties of the evaluated health technology
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May be "good enough" as a stand-alone approach, depending on the specific drug and market, or can be useful for cross-validation
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Commercialization experience and business acumen paramount for the selection of the appropriate analogues
