Business Simulation to Support Pharma Launch Excellence

Drug Discovery to Launch in Four Days: Building Launch Excellence in Biopharma

Getting a drug to market is one of the most complex, uncertain, and cross-functional undertakings in modern business. It typically takes a decade. But one of our biopharmaceutical customers wanted their leaders to experience the journey from molecule to market in just four days.

Not as a metaphor. As a simulation.

They partnered with Forge to build an end-to-end experience that doesn’t just tell leaders what the journey looks like. It puts them in the driver’s seat and lets them feel it.

The Problem

Cross-functional teams are essential to bringing a new molecule to market. But alignment is rare.

R&D is pushing the science forward under pressure. Regulatory leaders are managing compliance and de-risking approval timelines. Medical affairs is protecting credibility and scientific integrity. Commercial is building the case for access and adoption. 

Each function is operating with different timelines, success metrics, and constraints. Even experienced leaders may not fully understand how a decision in one part of the organization ripples across the rest.

These disconnects lead to avoidable friction. Poor handoffs. Risky rework. And launch delays that cost real money and impact patient outcomes.

The Ask

The company didn’t want a training. They wanted a practice environment.

They needed a shared experience that would build cross-functional fluency, sharpen strategic decision-making, and give leaders the reps to practice enterprise thinking under pressure.

So we worked together to design a simulation that would compress ten years of complexity into a four-day, high-stakes leadership sprint.

The Solution

We designed an experience that spanned the full product lifecycle—from candidate selection to post-launch execution. The simulation unfolded in four stages. Each stage presented realistic decisions, messy tradeoffs, and stakeholder friction that leaders had to work through together.

1. Candidate Selection
Teams evaluated early-stage assets, weighing tradeoffs between market fit, unmet medical need, and portfolio diversification. They had to justify their picks against internal resource constraints and long-term strategic fit.

2. Clinical Development
Participants designed trials, forecasted regulatory pathways, and made tradeoffs between speed, risk, and data robustness. Timelines were tight. Resources were limited. Regulatory input was unpredictable.

3. Commercial Strategy
Teams developed pricing and access strategies, responded to payer pushback, and refined positioning against competitors. Budgeting decisions had consequences. Global markets raised complexity. Timelines began to compress.

4. Market Execution
With launch underway, participants activated field teams, interpreted early performance signals, and had to pivot strategy in response to physician uptake and competitor movement. KPIs were messy. Board pressure was real.

Throughout the simulation, participants were asked to defend their decisions, respond to cross-functional input, and adapt strategy in real time. They saw what it meant to own the full arc of the product—not just their function.

What Happened

The results were clear, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

• 92% of participants reported increased confidence in cross-functional decision-making
  
  
• 87% said the experience improved their understanding of downstream impacts
  
  
• In post-simulation projects, teams aligned on launch priorities three times faster
  
  

Leaders began to show up differently. They asked better questions. They anticipated constraints outside their lane. They moved faster—together.

The GM of the Oncology BU put it this way:

“This simulation helped my team see the business through a unified lens. It didn’t just build skills. It sparked real alignment and sharper decision-making.”

Why It Works

This is what Forge was built to do.

The simulation didn’t provide answers. It created the conditions for leaders to wrestle with ambiguity, see the full system, and practice operating at the level where tradeoffs live.

By compressing a decade of decisions into a dynamic, collaborative experience, the simulation built the muscles that matter:

• Strategic empathy across functions
  
  
• Pattern recognition around lifecycle risks
  
  
• The ability to think like a business, not just a department
  
  

It didn’t sanitize the complexity. It exposed it. And that’s where the learning lives.
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The Bottom Line

You can’t align leaders by telling them to align. You have to give them a shared map of the journey—and the experience of navigating it together.

When they own that experience, they make better decisions. They move faster. And they build what biopharma demands most right now: momentum with precision.

If your teams are stuck in functional silos or struggling to see the full picture, don’t give them another offsite. Give them a simulation. One that brings the business to life. One they’ll never forget.

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