At Captario, we have had several conversations about early vs. late portfolios with portfolio specialists and stakeholders. We can boil down these discussions to the following two questions:
How can we differentiate between early projects when we have little or no information about cost, timelines, risks, or revenue?
How do we show the value of having an early portfolio given the (much more valuable) late portfolio?
One example that addresses this is focusing on portfolio sustainability since this will highlight the importance of the unique parts of the portfolio. Pharmaceutical products have a life span of +20 years from inception to patent expiry, and it is healthy to have the same focus when looking at the portfolio. The late portfolio will run its course in 8-12 years and become less important later. Then, in 10 years, the portfolio revenue targets will be met mainly by what is currently in the early portfolio.
For discussions about meeting revenue targets in 10 years, we need to isolate the early portfolio and focus on how those projects, plus business development, will meet revenue targets.
