For the first month or so I made Big Pharma Sharma free. This has helped me get into a great rhythm with writing each week as well as build a loyal subscriber base. Moving forward, I’ll be initiating phase two of Big Pharma Sharma, which will be moving to a paid subscriber model.
In thinking through how best to price this substack, I did my best to look at comparable websites. Truthfully, I don’t think there is a nearly identical platform, person, or service providing the quality, depth, value, and perspective I have brought and intend to continue bringing to you, my loyal readers. In any case, here are some examples of additional Pharma/Biotech sites where your dollars could be or are already going:
Subscription Cost
Individual (Paid) Subscription | $10 per month OR $110 per year
Based on the above research, I’ve decided to price Big Pharma Sharma at $10 per month or $110 per year (i.e. save $10 by purchasing the full year upfront). With a subscription you will get every new post I write plus access to every old post I’ve written. You’ll also get immediate access to new media offerings when they launch. These are items like podcasts, discord groups/chats, live events, and meetups.
Expensing your membership
Many of my existing subscribers actually subscribe with their work/employer email accounts and are able to expense their membership through work. If you need to send your boss a letter of justification, you can use the note below as a template:
Special Discounts and Promotions
Periodically I may release special discounts. Substack gives me the ability to offer group discounts as well as issue special offers to selected groups. If you’d like to discuss group rate discounts for your team or if you require special pricing due to financial hardship, please reach out.
Pro/Industry Tier | $1150
I have launched my Pro/Industry tier subscription. This tier will give you access to everything you get with a paid membership to Big Pharma Sharma (all my past and future posts unpaywalled) PLUS downloadable access to any and all custom databases, conference planners, slide decks, graphics, landscapes, etc, etc, etc, that I create. If you go to the homepage of www.bigpharmasharma.com you’ll see a tab for “Document Library”. In that tab I’ve linked every deliverable I’ve ever created. These deliverables are living documents that are regularly updated and downloadable. With an industry tier subscription you will be able to download, reuse, and repurpose my creations for your own purposes or your employer’s purposes.
Because these deliverables require great care, time, effort, and attention to create and continuously update, and I envision the primary use case for my work to be leveraged by folks at companies, I’ve priced access to the industry tier at a premium with the idea that most people using this will be using company/business funds to pay for it. The starting price for this tier is just $1150. Right now the main databases you have access to are the Priority Review Voucher database I previously created (see article here) and my ESMO 2023 planner. The planner literally has every single presentation and poster listed on the ESMO website all nicely organized in a downloadable spreadsheet. I’ll be updating this planner once again when late-breakers are announced. With that download, you are free to create your own planners (e.g. for CI/Medical Affairs conference coverage). I used to pay consultants thousands and thousands of dollars for this sort of tedious work when I was running CI teams - cutting, pasting, cleaning, and sifting through an endless bounty of abstracts in hard to navigate databases. If you want an easy way to digest and curate your own ESMO 2023 conference coverage - I’ve done all the hard work for you. As the document library grows, I intend for the price of this tier to increase as well. So talk to your manager or finance partner now and get access while it is still probably the lowest it will ever be.