Business Development and Commercial: Growth Begins Before Sales

In the healthcare market, commercial success rarely occurs on the day of launch. What data is collected, what endpoints a study reflects, how a product fits into treatment pathways and what evidence expects payers will be decided long beforehand. Business development, market access, medical affairs and sales must therefore work together sooner than classic functional limits provide.

This also applies to medical technology and care models: Good technology only makes an impact if users can integrate it into everyday life, procurement and reimbursement work and the organization can deliver reliably. Commercial leadership is therefore not a pure sales task, but a translation service between market, evidence and operation.

The German AMNOG procedure links the early benefit assessment of new medicines with later pricing. The Federal Ministry of Health concisely summarizes the basic principle:

Since January 2025, pharmaceutical manufacturers have also had to prove in AMNOG dossiers how many participants of their approval studies were recruited at German test sites. [2] In parallel, the EU regulation on the evaluation of health technologies applies. New cancer drugs and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products have been going through since 12. January 2025 joint clinical assessments at EU level. [3]

For commercial and business development leadership, it follows: Evidence strategy, market access and commercialization cannot be planned one after the other. If you only ask after approval which comparison therapy, population or outcome logic is relevant for the market, you have already lost essential options.

In Pharma and Biotech, business development includes licensing, co-development, strategic partnerships, M&A preparation and portfolio decisions. In medical technology, distribution partnerships, OEM models, digital services or joint market access can be added.

The quality of a BD leader is not shown by the number of conversations conducted, but by the quality of their hypotheses:

• What strategic gap does a partnership close?
• What rights and dependencies arise?
• Do scientific value, development risk and commercial potential go hand in hand?
• What skills does your company need to retain?
• How does a signed contract generate operational value?

A deal is therefore not an end point. Without governance, resources and shared milestones, a formally attractive partnership can tie up management capacity without creating the expected value.

The EMA recommended a total of 104 medicinal products for human use for approval in 2025; 38 of these contained a new active ingredient. [4] However, innovation alone does not ensure that a product arrives in the supply. Commercial leadership must coordinate several levels:

Segmentation and positioning

Which patient group, facility or application situation has the highest demonstrable benefit? A sharp positioning is more credible than a maximally broad market promise.

Market access and reimbursement

Price, evidence and supply path go together. Commercial managers need to understand the logic of HTA, payers and procurement, even when specialized teams are operationally leading the processes.

Go-to-Market and Channel Model

Direct sales, key account management, distributors or digital channels require different competencies and management models. What works in a company cannot be automatically transferred to a scale-up or a medium-sized company.

Implementation and delivery capability

A growth strategy is only as resilient as the organization behind it. Forecast, production, training, service, medical support and data have to grow with the commercial demand.

Sales figures are an important part of the balance sheet, but not a complete declaration of performance. The evaluation requires context:

1. Was the product established or did a market first have to be created?
2. Which price, refund or evidence hurdles existed?
3. What resources, brand and distribution channels were already in place?
4. Did the person scale a team or optimize an existing system?
5. How were Medical, Market Access, Operations and Finance involved?
6. Was the success sustainable – or bought by short-term measures?

Especially relevant is the ability to process bad news early. When evidence, demand, or market access deviate from planning, a commercial executive must be able to adjust the strategy without overwhelming the organization with changing narratives.

Hannes Sommer also begins commercial mandates with the specific growth task. Is it about the first launch, an international expansion, the professionalization of a sales model, a partnership strategy or a turnaround? Only from this distinction does a resilient profile emerge.

The market mapping uses network, market information and AI-supported research to identify candidates outside the most obvious comparison companies. The personal judgment remains decisive: Hannes examines what the person himself has built, decided and was responsible for.

Through a maximum of three parallel mandates, addresses, interviews and calibration remain personally guided. After Hannes’ own process experience, the first checked profiles are usually available after about two weeks.

Before a search, companies should distinguish between five possible core tasks:

• Creating market: making a new category or therapy understandable and accessible.
• Launch lead: synchronize evidence, market access, medical and sales.
• Internationalize: prioritize markets and develop a scalable channel model.
• Focus resources on the most valuable products, indications or partnerships.
• Professionalize Commercial Organization: Reorganize roles, control, data and collaboration.

One person may be outstanding in one of these tasks and unsuitable in another. Precision therefore begins with the right diagnosis.

Business development and commercial in the healthcare market begin long before contracting or selling. They combine evidence, benefits, market access, partnerships and operational implementation. Executive Search must translate these relationships into concrete decision-making experience – so that not only a convincing communicator, but the right growth leadership is selected.