Marketing †product, pricing &description Essay

Initial Product: The Company plans to pursue vigorously and at an accelerated rate the development, production and marketing of artificial lumbar disc . The goal would be apart from being superior to other products it should affordable for the masses in Canada keeping in mind that very few people rely on medical insurances and pay from their own pocket.. Emphasis would be on improving the reliability of the device, and also incorporating digital circuitry or sensors to monitor the position of the device after it has been implanted on to the patient. The company would also like to pay for any revision surgeries for the patients if required. We would also manufacture associated devices/instrumentation required for surgical procedures. Short term Product: In the second year of business the Spinal Dynamics would try to pursue development of a cervical (upper back) artificial disc based on the previous design but much smaller in size. Long Term Product: Plan would be to improve the lumbar artificial disc and come up with better device material, in order to make it more durable and wear resistant. We would also try to incorporate digital circuitry in order to monitor the position of the device post surgically. DESIGN PROTOTYPE The design would be similar to the current Charite disc by Depuy Spine . A polymer sliding core at the middle with two cobalt chrome end plate would be the basic construct design. KEY FEATURES & BENEFITS The strategic product benefit of Prime disc would be its being minimally invasive, ability to alleviate pain and capability to restore normal range of motion. The main benefit would be that the device would be manufactured in Canada, and thus would be first of its kind. Spinal Dynamics would also file for patent protection . It would be economically priced, in order to make it more affordable for the masses in Canada. PRICING PLANS The current market price for an artificial disc implant is approximately 5000USD-10,000USD. The aim of Spinal Dynamics is to minimize the cost of the implant, by manufacturing the implant in Canada at half of the existing price. The price per device would be approximately 1000USD. COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT Companies Differentiators Medtronic De-puy Synthes Spine. Core Competency brand name Huge range of products Backed by Johnson&Johnson Established brand name Technology/Innovation Highly innovative Highly innovative Specialized in spinal areas Unique distribution NO NO NO PART C: OPERATIONS LOCATION & FACILITIES Spinal Dynamics would be renting a 1500 sq feet area for our office space in Toronto, Canada. The space would be divided into 10 cubicles, with two cabins for the presidents and the senior scientist. 15 Dell Inspiron Desktops would be bought and housed in each cubicle and cabins. An annual license from Abaqus and CATIA would be purchased, which could be renewed from time to time. Apart from these a high speed internet connection, an office LAN would be required. A back up system would be put in place to secure the data files every week. External hard disks and other data storage devices would be bought for this purpose Also a Plotter and two HP Laser printer would be bought. On a parallel level a small office place would be leased in U. S at Toledo, Ohio from where few team members would be working. This group would be dealing with testing and development of experimental protocol for the device. Both the groups would be communicating via emails , phone calls etc. This model would enable Spinal dynamics to save some cost on procuring expensive equipments for testing , and also they can work with various universities in and around Toledo. Apart from this there would be direct communication with experts like Dr Vijay Goel and Lisa Ferrara who all belong to the Advisory committee and currently reside in U. S. R&D Plans: Spinal Dynamics will produce artificial disc implants with the strategic product benefits of being minimally invasive, will alleviate pain and would restore normal range of motion. Spinal Dynamic’s unique product design is based upon extensive market research. Though some reverse engineering concepts would be applied to the pre-existing products in the market, the idea would be to incorporate the best features from all of them. CATIA CAD software in synchronization with ABAQUS an FEA tool would be used for design development. After the design concept is fully developed a prototype will be manufactured. The design team will comprise of 5 team members who will be proficient in CAD/FEA area, this team will be headed by The R&D head Dr Ahmad Faizan. 1) All initial manufacturing work would be done by S&S manufacturing a 3rd party prototype manufacturing company. 2) The design’s functionality would be tested by various experiments, namely using MTS simulator and other biomechanical-cadaveric studies. The protocols would be developed accordingly and approved by the management. The testing could be done at various universities at a much cheaper cost than buying costly equipments initially. 3) Clinical trials would be undertaken through hospitals under the guidance of physicians and patients who would be willing to participate in this trial. Legal aspects would be taken care of, in case the design does not work. The patient’s suitability to the trial would be selected based on the physician’s decision. 4) After the first four stages a pilot manufacturing would be undertaken, and 100 devices would be produced. 5) The device’s testing results would be submitted for FDA and other approvals and accordingly vigorous testing would be undertaken if the need be. 6) After formal approval we would plan to set up a state of art manufacturing shop floor, where the devices would be manufactured and sterile packed. Title Description Start Date Finish Date Remarks Priority/ Sequence Facility development Construction June 2008 Oct 2008 Very important/ First priority Product development Design & prototype June 2009 Should be started as soon as the facility is set up Testing Clinical Trial-short term and long term September 2010 Approvals Obtaining approvals October 2010 Pilot Test Initial Pilot test November 2010 Production Full fledged production.