Metabical Analysis

Metabical is a prescription drug produced by Cambridge Sciences Pharmaceuticals (CSP) for weight loss, which was the first and only prescription drug to obtain FDA approval. The drug was developed to help aid people in the overweight segment to lose 10 to 30 pounds. Barbara Printup is the marketing director in charge of selecting a price for the new prescription drug. In a study CSP did with Metabical, people with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 to 30 had an average weight loss of 26 pounds over a 12 week period. At the same time, people with a BMI of 25-28 had an average weight loss of 15 pounds. This study found the new prescription drug to be useful and effective. Through research, Printup decided to target female consumers in the 35 to 65 age range with a college education. Metabical was also basing pricing and packaging compared to their main competitors in this particular market. CSP wanted to base their new product comparably to Alli, but felt Metabical could be priced at a premium due to the need of a prescription to get the drug, and the fact that they were the only FDA approved weight loss drug on the market. Pricing was a main concern with this product and several scenarios were run to try and project and forecast where the pricing would make the best return on investment (ROI). The packaging was also something Printup had to consider when preparing this product. The main issue is how to break up the 12 week supply, if at all, to get the best sales results. The packaging was the first concern we decided to take care of. We decided we should sell the weight loss drug in three four-week packages. We decided upon this since there are many advantages to this while minimizing disadvantages. First, we decided that the four week packaging was at the specific point where the consumer did not have to spend too much money to buy it, yet got invested in the product enough that they would come back to buy the second and third portions. This allows CSP to keep