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About Us
Our Mission
First Principles Advisory specializes in pharmaceutical industry growth and commercialization challenges. Our team of PhDs, MBAs, and seasoned consultants takes your product – no matter the stage of development – beyond the science to find the best commercial strategy, operational execution, and market research solutions.
How We Work
First we break every problem down to its base business components. Then we form business hypotheses for these base components that solve your challenges. Throughout we work collaboratively, flexibly, and iteratively -- adapting our working style to your needs, whether hands-off or seeking us to extend your in-house team. We cultivate long-term relationships built on honesty and trust.
For market research: we integrate ourselves to understand your problems and how we can solve them; we facilitate all our fieldwork ourselves.
Our Story
First Principles Advisory Group is a boutique management consultancy focused exclusively on life sciences innovation, with service offerings covering product development and commercialization strategy, project and program management, portfolio management, and market research. Our firm’s areas of expertise and broad staff experience uniquely bridge strategy and operations, helping our clients meet growth challenges in these two key areas.
Our Beginnings
The firm was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, though our footprint extends to the Boston/Cambridge, Colorado, and Washington DC/Maryland biotech hubs. With a carefully selected core staff that has yet to exceed 15 members, we’ve accrued a client list that includes universities, government agencies, the largest pharma and biotech bellwethers, notable earlier stage companies, and seed-stage startups.
Our Philosophy
At our core we do not believe in a one-size-fits-all model, and thus, we are not a consultancy in the traditional mold. We want to deliver fit-for-purpose results for every client, every time. To successfully accomplish this, we’ve assembled a group of mid-career professionals of varied backgrounds and personal interests, who share an interest in applying deep, critical thinking towards helping our clients with their most challenging business questions and needs. Our staff backgrounds include consultancy, industry, and academia and allow us to break every problem down in order to build a simple, elegant, fit-fit-purpose solution. We’re not interested in mimicking the Big Three model and we believe that we do some of the best work out there in our areas of expertise.
What We Do
In order to best help our clients, we focus on four core bio-tech business challenges:
We've helped our clients with such challenges across many Therapeutic Areas (Oncology, Auto-immune, Gene Therapy & Orphan Diseases, and Central Nervous System).
“Particularly valuable bridging the transition from start-up to clinical through commercialization stages.”
- CBO, Venture Funded Bio-oncology Company
“I’ve used them when I was at a large, established biopharmaceutical company, as well as at several emerging biotech companies. They’re great - I highly recommend them.”
- CBO, Venture Funded Bio-oncology Company
“First Principles provides the correct amount and type of resource to help my company grow from one stage to another and prepare for IND. [They] act as a strategic soundboard”
- COO, Venture Funded Cellular Therapy Company
“First Principles is my top-of-mind portfolio and strategic consulting firm.”
- CBO, Venture Funded Bio-oncology Company