Think Tanks

Often mislabeled as an Advisory Board, a think tank is a process for in-depth consideration of issues and challenges that have far reaching ramifications. In the area of medical development, such challenges typically revolve around such topics as trial design, endpoint development, patent issues, and regulatory conundrums. An effective approach goes beyond listing ideas as in brainstorming but actually analyzes potential factors or proposed solutions. A think tank is a challenging communication environment that benefits from professional facilitation.

ECG has helped design and facilitate hundreds of think tank meetings, primarily for drug development support and regulatory reconnaissance. Think tanks are truly designed to dig into an issue, challenge conventional wisdom, and grapple with ideas and decisions that will have consequences for years - hence their assertive use by development teams that truly want to develop novel ideas and optimize development pathways. They are not meetings for the team that wants to force a validation of their preconceived notions.