Biomarker-guided drug development is now structural, not a passing trend; pharma and biotech companies rely on PD biomarkers to select doses, prove mechanism of action, and stratify patients across oncology, immunology, neurology, and rare disease. If you provide immunoassays, flow cytometry, mass spectrometry-based assays, or biomarker testing services, the market need is real and growing.
Here’s the part most assay and reagent companies get wrong: the actual purchasing decision-maker is often not the biotech sponsor. It’s the CRO or central lab the sponsor has already outsourced testing to. Sell only direct-to-biotech, and you’re competing for attention deal by deal, program by program. Get your assay validated and adopted inside a CRO’s standard biomarker menu, and you get distributed across every client that CRO serves, without re-selling it from scratch each time.
Why a passive distributor mindset doesn’t work here either
This isn’t a one-time integration and forget it. The CRO and central-lab relationships that actually produce revenue look a lot like a well-run distributor partnership: shared target lists, technical training so their staff can run your assay reliably at scale, reference data they can hand to their own pharma clients, and visible tracking of what that relationship is actually producing.
PSG Life Sciences already works in the proteomics technologies and analytical technologies markets this category runs on, multiplex immunoassays, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, bioanalytical characterization, and the high-throughput assay systems CROs build their biomarker service menus around.
Where PSG Life Sciences fits
Trying to figure out whether to sell direct, through CROs, or both? Our Start solution maps your buyer landscape by therapeutic area and development stage, and builds the channel strategy that matches your assay to the right path to revenue.
Already have CRO relationships but they feel like a black box? Our Grow solution brings the same distributor accountability we build for product companies to your CRO and central-lab partnerships, shared target lists, training tracking, and visible pipeline by partner.
Need the CRM to track program milestones, not just generic lead status? HubSpot Life Sciences Pro segments by therapeutic area, development stage, and direct-vs-CRO-routed relationship, because a Phase 1 lead and a pivotal-trial lead need completely different follow-up.
What we actually build for PD biomarker and companion diagnostic companies
- Channel strategy that determines when direct sponsor sales make sense and when CRO or central-lab co-development is the faster path to scale
- CRO and central-lab partnership structure with the same accountability, training tracking, and shared target lists we build for distributor relationships
- CRM segmentation by therapeutic area, development stage, and channel type, so a preclinical lead and a late-phase clinical lead get appropriately different attention
- Positioning built around the development decision the assay supports (dose selection, target engagement, patient stratification) not just the underlying technology platform
- Companion diagnostic co-development tracking, separated from standalone biomarker testing pipeline
A direct question worth asking yourself
If your three largest CRO or central-lab relationships disappeared tomorrow, would you know exactly how much pipeline you lost, or would you only find out the next time quarterly revenue came in lower than expected?
Ready to build a real channel strategy for biomarker services?
PSG Life Sciences is a HubSpot Gold partner and fractional commercialization firm working exclusively with biotech, life science, and diagnostic product companies, including the proteomics and analytical platforms this market depends on. We build the channel strategy and CRM systems described above as implemented client work, not theory.