How we turned insights into strategic action for a leading pharma company

The Challenge

A top five global pharmaceutical company asked MATTER to accelerate an early stage effort to explore cardiovascular disease applications for its sensing technology. Building on its deep metabolic health expertise, the company identified an opportunity to develop its knowledge of the U.S. cardiovascular landscape. The team needed evidence that would help them determine where meaningful value creation was possible and whether their existing technology could address unmet needs.

The company faced two major barriers: limited internal expertise in cardiovascular care and uncertainty around which clinical opportunities were worth pursuing. They needed a partner that could surface high-quality insights quickly and translate them into a clear strategic direction.

Our Approach

MATTER’s deep healthcare ecosystem reach and full-service research capabilities enabled the team to ground the work in real-world clinical insight, validating opportunities at scale and translating findings into actionable choices.

The team began by engaging more than twenty specialized physicians in under one month, conducting in-depth qualitative interviews and roundtables to understand how clinicians screen for, monitor and manage cardiovascular patients. This primary research surfaced over 200 unmet needs and highlighted where frustration, risk and opportunity were concentrated, giving the company a grounded view of the landscape.

To clarify which opportunities were most meaningful, MATTER then designed a large-scale quantitative survey to understand the highest-priority needs across general practitioners and cardiologists. The analysis revealed three opportunity segments and identified one highly underserved area that aligned with the company’s capabilities.

MATTER then turned these insights into clear strategic options, developing five business model concepts and facilitating an in-person session with the company’s steering committee to explore each path. Through this process, the company selected a focused entry point — reducing 90-day post-discharge readmission risks — that addressed a significant unmet need and could be pursued using existing assets.

Outcomes

Through this partnership, the company achieved clarity on where to focus, confidence in the commercial and clinical rationale and a validated path for market entry supported by data.

At the conclusion of the program, the pharma company gained:

• A validated understanding of unmet needs across general practitioners and cardiologists gleaned from unique qualitative and quantitative research
• Clear prioritization of opportunity segments and a defined starting point for market entry
• Five business model concepts linked to the most important clinical and commercial needs
• An entry strategy centered on reducing readmission risks within 90 days, delivered through an in-person executive workshop

MATTER’s ability to mobilize its network of leading healthcare providers quickly gave the company access to clinical insights that were otherwise out of reach. The speed at which MATTER sourced participants, the quality of the insights generated and the rigor of the mixed-methods research allowed the company to make informed decisions with confidence in an accelerated manner.

By grounding the work in real-world needs, validating those needs at scale and translating the findings into clear strategic choices, MATTER helped the company define its first opportunity in cardiovascular care. The engagement also created a foundation the company can continue building on as it advances its cardiovascular strategy.