Andrew Walters 3/22/12 Biopure Biopure Corporation specializes in blood substitutes for transfusion patients, both in the veterinary market and the human market. However, in 1998, Biopure faced the monumental decision of whether to begin selling Oxyglobin, a blood substitute, to the veterinary market or to wait until Hemoglobin, a blood substitute for the human market, became available for sale. The problem is whether or not the company should launch Oxyglobin before Hemoglobin is FDA-approved or wait until after Hemoglobin is approved and released into the human market.
I would recommend that they release Oxyglobin immediately rather than wait for Hemoglobin’s FDA-approval. The reasoning behind this decision follows from an analysis of both the veterinary blood substitute market and the human blood substitute market. I would recommend this because Hemopure is still at least 2 years away from FDA approval, Blood substitute competitors have a more established brand and more money; success of Oxyglobin would help Biopure compete against these factors, and failure of other drugs makes introduction of Hemopure a financial risk.
There will be many decisions that will have to be made as a result of this. Biopure executives will have to make is what price to charge per unit of Oxyglobin. The veterinary market is small and price-sensitive. The two surveys that Biopure conducted in 1997 to test the sensitivity of the animal blood substitute market found that 25 percent and 80 percent of veterinarians would try Oxyglobin in noncritical and critical cases, respectively, if the product was priced at $150.
Therefore, Biopure should charge $150 per unit of Oxyglobin. In conclusion, I recommend that Biopure introduce Oxyglobin into the veterinary blood substitute market at a price of $150 per unit in order to gain respect and brand awareness in the blood substitute market and to provide a source of income for Biopure while they await FDA approval for Hemopure. (Ref. http://hstrial- laurendecker. homestead. com/biopurecasestudy)