Q: How do trifermed’s solutions respond to a constantly innovating sector?

ST: trifermed addresses the needs of any innovator in the health space, whether it is an entrepreneur or a large company. We have a holistic understanding of health, from prevention to well-being, diagnostics and treatment. Throughout the process, there are many actors seeking to improve and innovate with the right resources and market knowledge. trifermed is the ideal partner for the science and technology of a company, we build business around innovative developments to get these ideas to the market. 

RB: Innovation is at the heart of trifermed’s business value proposition. We provide remote business services, using virtual platform implementation (called Wrike), to health innovators that need innovation management, portfolio development, collaborative partnerships and divestment, providing individual services tailored to meet the needs of our clients. In 2019, the International Organization for Standardization developed ISO 56002 focused on innovation management and we follow these guidelines closely. Working directly with our clients, we help them to identify health opportunities, define and validate ideas (testing business hypotheses) and to develop and deploy health solutions through a standardized process. In this way, we help them to manage uncertainty and reduce risks. We work with our clients to help design and validate their business models, using the proven Strategizer tool adopted by many companies and organizations globally, including Harvard Business School and Stanford, and then reviewing the model within the context of the business environment in which they work.

Q: What are trifermed’s strongest segments in the healthcare industry?

RB: Our innovation process applies to all stakeholders in the health sector. We began working with pharmaceutical companies and this is still our strongest customer base. We have broadened our scope into animal health, biotech, medtech, startups, health investors and, more recently, the exciting field of digital health, which has grown spectacularly in recent months, accelerated by the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ST: Innovation can also be created and encouraged through business and market strategies. This is the message we also want to share with companies and entrepreneurs. As a result, they are able to take that innovation beyond their immediate environment and have better results. We promote this as a company and individually. I encourage projects through talks and participating in congresses. For instance, I was invited to do a presentation on our innovation process hosted by UNAM and the INCYDE foundation.

Q: Why is Mexico an important player for trifermed and how have your solutions adapted to this market?

RB: trifermed is based in Barcelona. We coordinate our activities globally from there and have local partners covering the US, Canada and Latin America, including Mexico. Through especially successful innovation management projects and collaborative partnerships in Mexico, we have developed a good understanding of this market and the needs of healthcare companies, which have changed significantly in recent times and which we have been able to adapt to, using our unique methodology.

ST: Mexico became a strategic point from day one due to its location, serving as a bridge for European companies to enter Latin America.

Q: Why should Mexican healthcare companies use trifermed’s consulting services?

RB: We have created a unique methodology based on our state-of-the-art virtual platform and business development processes for health solutions. A recent survey highlighted five must-haves for solution providers: value, experience, methodology, integrity and quality. These five values exemplify how we work. We have signed 150 collaborative partnerships and have served more than 100 clients worldwide. We have also developed strong relationships with hundreds of contacts, which together form the strong internal database of companies within trifermed, adding to the extensive external databases we have validated and subscribed to. We have a highly effective team in Barcelona with both science and business experience. We also participate in key international health events, such as CPhI, BioUSA and Europe and JP Morgan, even virtually due to the current conditions.

ST: Mexican healthcare companies are embracing innovation as they have realized its importance for healthcare management. The market is still young, however. There is not a great deal of innovation to commercialize in Mexico so companies need to go around the world to look for new developments and bring them to Mexico. I would say that this is the first reason why our clients use trifermed’s consulting services, because we support their scouting of innovation in health and their entrance to Mexico. 

Q: What are the most common needs in the healthcare sector and how does trifermed help clients to achieve their goals?

ST: We support clients with product introduction in different countries as we analyze the market and its risks. Trifermed can represent an innovative company and its product in Mexico but it can also represent a product from Mexico in a different market.

RB: In Mexico, we have helped companies seeking to expand their value proposition and interested in inward and outward investment outside of their normal business interests. As an example, we supported Archivel Farma from Spain in the development of RUTI, a therapeutic vaccine for tuberculosis, which includes Mexico, working on the clinical development with Laboratorios Silanes.

Q: What is the advantage of having a global perspective of the healthcare sector?

ST: We use our global experience to support our clients to prevent or anticipate scenarios based on rational strategies that can be backed by previous experiences. Moreover, with our work in other countries, we have had contact with state-of-the-art developments and innovation, which is exactly what trifermed needs as it aims to bring innovation to countries that struggle to develop it. Any innovative solution needs to have a global perspective. Otherwise, it would be too expensive to develop a local innovation. First, there needs to be a global solution and then a strategy for its local use.  

RB: Our global reach means that we have a very large database in all key global markets of potential partners for clients in Mexico with assets that our clients may take advantage of and potential partners for clients that are looking for new countries and regions to market their products. This also gives us important experience in the particularities of global markets, which helps us to develop and validate the business models of both our clients and potential partners to ensure a good fit.

Q: How does trifermed support local clients to identify strengths and weaknesses in their financing processes?

RB: This pandemic has created unprecedented challenges in how we work and conduct our business. Many stakeholders in the health arena are rethinking their business strategies, looking for new or alternative opportunities, and we are seeing innovative companies highly active in these areas. Even before COVID-19, changes in the business environment in Mexico had already convinced companies to rethink their business models. We know of companies, for instance, that see Mexico as a fertile opportunity in developing digital health solutions in many fields – telemedicine, digital therapeutics, artificial intelligence. Some of these solutions are already being used in this market. We have been working in these areas and believe our methodology can help companies decide the right directions to explore in this respect.

Q: What are the company’s short-term goals?

ST: trifermed has invested a great deal in developing knowledge based on our company’s methodology. We are reaching an inflection point towards a fast scale up process. As we are a fully virtual provider, demand for our services is being well-received as digital acceleration in the sector has increased significantly. This, combined with our experience, has enabled us to start one of the largest projects we have worked on: managing more than 600 companies for a single divestment project. These types of projects and capacity is what we wish to promote based on the advantages that digitalization can offer.

trifermed is a specialized boutique business development firm that offers personalized remote business services to health innovators in the areas of innovation management, portfolio development, collaborative partnerships and divestment