The Higginbotham Group is a virtual team of experts and partner companies that deliver tailored expert advice to pharma, clinical service companies and financial institutions. Our mission is to grow shareholder and financial value efficiently whilst offering our clients premier service and attention.

The practice was established in October 2010 and has conducted specialist international consulting work that has contributed to enhanced valuation for a number of high profile clinical services companies. The foundation of our offer is strategic excellence that stems from practical, senior, real-world knowledge. 

Higginbotham Group Associates and affiliated organizations have specialist knowledge and experience in the global pharma, outsourcing and clinical services market. We are able to work effectively and efficiently as a virtual international team.  

Simon Higginbotham is CEO and Founder of The Higginbotham Group which he established in 2010 following a successful management career. He has built a reputation as a senior leader in the healthcare sector, having served as president of Kendle International, a top 5 global public CRO and also as a board director of ACRO, the global CRO industry association. In these roles he has spent considerable time working with the senior policy makers and decision makers in healthcare and with organizations that are looking to build brands and drive change.

Mr. Higginbotham has held strategic, commercial and operational roles and also had significant experience in M&A activity at Kendle, including a key role in the $200 million acquisition of Charles River Clinical and acquisition and integration of an early-phase unit. His consulting company is founded on the principle that great strategy can positively change people, brands and organizations. The company has advised international and US based pharma and clinical services companies since it started in October 2010 and has won industry awards for creative and effective brand campaigns. 

Prior to his roles at Kendle, Mr. Higginbotham worked in commercial roles with Quintiles in Europe operating across both the CSO and CRO arms of the business. During this time he led strategic development, marketing and sales projects and engaged in understanding future Pharma needs for outsourcing partnership. He was the architect of several significant initiatives to develop and introduce new services and established a large network of specialists and third party experts that have in-depth knowledge of the outsourcing arena.

In his earlier career Mr. Higginbotham held commercial directorship roles in pharma and at P&G healthcare. This experience has enabled him to contribute to innovation in the healthcare field and to be a pioneer in the acceleration of outsourcing as an effective solution for Pharma to meet the increasingly challenging need for shareholder return. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School, attending AMP 175 and holds a BSc (Honors) in Microbiology from the University of Birmingham, UK. He is also a nationally certified Paramedic (NRP) in the United States.

Alan is a Pharma industry veteran with over 30 years industry experience. Alan served 18 years with Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals in executive leadership positions across Europe and in the US.  He managed several large co-promotion deals with companies such as Aventis, Novartis, Pfizer and Wyeth. He has in depth real world knowledge of all aspects of the commercialization of a healthcare product including organizational development, registration, reimbursement, marketing and sales.

Alan made the move to the clinical services sector in 2003 and has served in the global CRO industry in senior executive roles in EMEA, notably CMO and COO roles for Kendle International. He has held responsibility and accountability for multiple geographies and well over 75 clinical programs across the world, spanning phase 1 through registration. He led supplier/ partner relationships with many of the large pharmaceutical companies including Bayer, Lilly, Novartis and Pfizer. He opened new businesses in 5 countries and built operations from the ground up. He was also responsible for the integration of a large acquisition that increased the business from $80M to $120M across EMEA.

Since 2009, Alan has been an independent C-Suite healthcare consultant working on fundraising and go-to-market strategies in both the pharmaceutical and device industries. He has continued to act as a senior advisor to the clinical research industry, working with investment houses in the UK and USA. Examples of consulting projects include his work as a partner with BroadReach Healthcare, where he focused on developing their Life Science business in Africa. He was responsible for a critical strategic alliance with IMS, a leading worldwide provider of information, technology and services dedicated to making healthcare perform better. He has also advised a European wound care company, attracting industry partners to invest and led the clinical and commercial development of a potential OTC to Rx switch in the US. He has acted as Commercial Director for a Medical Device Company in Sweden, which previously developed and sold the gastric band to Johnson & Johnson in 2002. 

Patricia is an industry expert in the commercial aspects of outsourcing in the CRO and pharma space. Her background includes over 20 years’ experience in the industry beginning with operational roles in phase I and subsequently developing expertise in strategy development and implementation, outsourcing, budget management, purchasing, SOP development, training, business process and pricing models and is well regarded for her negotiating ability.

Patricia has served in the CRO industry in senior global roles, notably VP Global Contracts for Quintiles and as VP Client Services for Kendle International. She has held responsibility and accountability for contract negotiation and ongoing management of new contracts in excess of $4bn annually with staff located worldwide.  She was responsible for developing and implementing contracts groups in India in two organizations, thereby optimizing cost and improving speed of delivery to clients, and also establishing the function in Singapore and working closely with teams in Japan.  Her senior roles have included development of processes, policies, templates and training that continue to be in place in today.

Since 2011, Patricia has been an independent consultant working with both pharma and vendor companies on a range of projects. Examples of consulting projects include a cross functional review of outsourcing for a leading pharmaceutical company including development of a partnership model, financial and contractual components, collaborating with two prominent consultancy firms, developing outsourcing processes for a new to market company including standard bid grids, budget management, negotiation, training and development, leading the outsourcing process and lifecycle management of phase I-IV trials for pharma clients, acting as a knowledge source with regard to benchmarking, CRO selection, and contract/budget negotiation; liaising between the internal operational team and CROs/SMOs/Vendors and developing a new integrated pricing tool to optimise efficiency in proposal preparation/contract negotiation for a leading patient recruitment organisation 

In her earlier career Patricia trained as a nurse, owned and managed her own business for a number of years, spent 3 years working for Lilly and Wyeth and is ABPI qualified. She also obtained a BSc (Honours) in Geography with Biology from the University of Sussex, UK and an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK.