La stratégie de Bioniche pour la gestion d'entreprise

Internal Analysis

The strategy of Bioniche for conducting business is a wide blend of styles and guidelines. Since the company gathers similar supply chains for different markets, it successfully hedges risks and diversifies activities, allowing it to face accurately the different market changes there might appear.

Activities, Resources and Capabilities

Bioniche conducts a business model of a fully-integrated pharmaceutical company. The main objective is to develop its own products for a later commercialization using a web of distributors worldwide. However, Bioniche as well acquires technologies and smaller businesses in market areas of interest to Bioniche. This way, the company can reach higher and strategic access to determined markets or segments. The company has developed a large infrastructure and capabilities needed for the conduction of all the operations it carries out. Operations such as scientific research and discoveries, manufacturing, clinical studies, administration and commercialization are held by the company within their own facilities. To what refers to the methods of distribution the company prefers to have further control by having agreements on distribution with partners instead of licensing agreements in which most of the companies in the same industry incur.

As mentioned before, the business in which Bioniche is involved in is about the biopharmaceutical industry for health and animal care. It is engaged in research and development for both human and animal blanches. In the human branch the activities are primarily based upon the research for cancer vaccines and medicines. The activities conducted by Bioniche are not constrained into the Canadian territory but it includes operations in Europe, United States and Australia as well.

The human health business unit is called Bioniche Therapeutics and is operated from Montréal, Quebec with 46 employees. In these facilities are located as well the research and production operation lines.

The animal health operations are actually carried out by four wholly owned subsidiaries of the company regarding the geographical segmentation. These are Bioniche Animal Health Europe Limited; Bioniche Animal Health USA, Inc.; Bioniche Animal Health Asia Pty.Ltd.; and Bioniche Animal Health Canada Inc.

Bioniche current main goal is to continue the international growth worldwide increasing the research for new medicines having an extensive use of technology for supplying key areas of strategic focus such as bladder cancer and animal vaccines such as for prevention of E. coli O157:H7 infection.

Financial Resources

Currently, Bioniche manages a diverse array of financial instruments and tools for conducting its operations every day. The operations follow a scheme of inter-funding among the business units that the group holds. The animal health care unit has proved to generate profits before EBITDA and before research and development. Thus, the food safety and human health care units benefit from the injected cash that the first business unit does on them. Since the operations on the second and third business units are currently involved in research and development and had not reached yet the commercialization phase then these are not profitable. This is the reason for the accumulated losses until june 30,2008 of about CAN$84.9 million because of the commited cash obligations and unavoidable expenses to make from the non-profitable business units. The company has financed these needs for cash by issuing shares, selling businesses of business units, government incentives, long-term debt and cash from the animal business unit. However, there are upcoming obligations needed to be paid and thus the company has to explore alternatives, like completing a partnership deal for financing the phase III development for the bladder cancer developed medicine Urocidin. On late 2007, the company converted part of the debt into equity and it was granted further borrowing for up to CAN$1.85 million.

On September 2007 the company received a $2 million grant from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for market developmet expenditures of the program of cattle vaccine. By December 18, 2007 the company received a second loan for $10 million from the Ontario government through the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. By December 21st, the Company amended the revolving credit it held with Laurus Master Funds granting access to the company to a borrow limit of US$5.5 million.

Human Resources

The Guidelines for conducting the operations in the human resources field are clear. The board of directors of Bioniche appointed that only the most talented researchers and managers have to be kept and the inefficient members of the payroll have to be dismissed. This has kept the human resources of the company lean by having a payroll of 202 employees throughout the entire company including all the business units. The managerial team is of 14 elements leading the company towards the achievement of the goals proposed in the mission statement.

Knowledge and Skills (Research and Development)

Bioniche lays its entire operations on the value produced by the stage of Research and Development. For the last fiscal year, this sole activity scored $15.9 million compared to $14.9 million from the year before. Most of all these costs can be attributed to the Phase III clinical program the company holds for developing the new product Urocidin for bladder cancer and E.coli 0157 cattle vaccine.

The means by which the company develops its knowledge and conducts the research and development is mainly by four activities: scientific discoveries, pre-clinical research, clinical studies and regulatory submissions and product registrations.

The main current concern of the company in this matter is about the development of cancer treatments using the process the company has patented by exploring the Mycrobacterial Cell DNA complex. This process will result in advances towards the treatment of leukemia and is currently on phase number III of development. As well the company conducts clinical tests on patients which have been diagnosed bladder cancer using the same platform but to test the medicine Urocidin which the company developed.

In the area of food safety, the company develops a cattle vaccine that prevents the colonization and spread of the E.coli 0157:H7 organism. This organism can cause serious harm to the human body if processed foods which have not being properly packed are consumed. This bacterium can contaminate the environment, ground water and cattle processing plants. This vaccine has proved to reduce the number of animals in which the bacterium

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