IQVIA Case Interview Examples: Pharma and Life Sciences Cases Solved (2026)

Updated Nov 12, 2026By Esteban Ronsin · Founder · former Deloitte and Accenture Strategy consultant

IQVIA's consulting case interview is a pharma or biotech business problem that you drive yourself: you structure it, ask for the numbers and finish on a recommendation. Candidates report one in the first round and more, plus a written case, in the final round, and IQVIA publishes none of them. This page gives you seven original practice cases with the math worked step by step, each tied to a theme IQVIA names on its own site, plus one worked excerpt from a library case.

The IQVIA case interview guide owns the process, the rounds, the behavioral questions and one worked drug-launch case; this page is the practice, and its cases are different ones. Each ends the way an IQVIA engagement ends: a decision, a number and the risk that could break it.

IQVIA-style practice cases at a glance

How an IQVIA case works: a pharma, biotech or life sciences problem that you lead, with data you request, ending in a recommendation without being asked.

Start free now: MedSuite Technologies Hospital Software Pricing is a McKinsey-style pricing case: a healthcare IT startup with a new hospital electronic health records platform must decide how to price it to maximize first-year revenue. It has 8 questions, 3 with math, 2 exhibits, and a median of 20 minutes across 18 completed voice runs. An AI interviewer runs it out loud, shows each exhibit when you reach it and scores the debrief. Your first full case is free when you create an account; the worked excerpt below runs its price comparison from the exhibits. A free account also gets one full run in every simulator inside the app: one complete run of each of our four McKinsey Solve practice formats (Red Rock, Sea Wolf, SFL Classic and SFL Island), a full Casey-style case, a full CCA-style diagnostic and a complete Bain SOVA-style diagnostic.

Case (style, industry)Quant difficultyQualitative difficultyThe math you runMedian time
MedSuite Technologies Hospital Software Pricing (McKinsey, hospital software). 8 (3 with math), 2 exhibits.
mediummediumRevenue at each price point, tiered pricing20 min, 18 voice runs
Goodbye Horses (Independent, healthcare). 8 (4 with math), 2 exhibits.
mediumhardSale value, project NPV portfolioFewer than 10 runs
Mustard Clinic (McKinsey, healthcare). 8 (3 with math), 2 exhibits.
hardmediumAverage stay, cost saving, freed capacityFewer than 10 runs
National Health System (Independent, health services). 8 (1 with math), 1 exhibit.
easymediumOlder share, visits, specialists neededFewer than 10 runs

Goodbye Horses is adapted from the Fuqua casebook, Mustard Clinic from Kellogg's and National Health System from INSEAD's; MedSuite was written for Road to Offer. The library has no case in IQVIA's own style and none of these is IQVIA material, so they are matched by case type: Goodbye Horses is a healthcare portfolio and sale decision, MedSuite a pricing decision, and the other two are operations and profitability cases in a clinical setting. More are in the case library, 92 cases in all. Every debrief scores seven categories: structure (25% of the score), quantitative analysis (20%), business judgment (15%), and problem understanding, exhibit reading, communication and synthesis (10% each), with feedback on every question. Median times come from completed runs between June 25 and September 22, 2026, and count runs, not people.

What does an IQVIA case interview look like?

Candidate reports describe a candidate-led case on a pharma or life sciences problem, with more cases and a written case in the final round; IQVIA does not publish the format. In the case you structure the problem, choose where to start and ask for the data, and the interviewer answers what you ask.

  • Reported, round structure: CaseBasix (updated August 20, 2026) describes a first round of two 30-minute interviews, one case and one behavioral, then a final round of three to four interviews with more advanced cases, a written case and more behavioral questions. Hacking the Case Interview describes the same two rounds and puts the final-round interviews at 30 to 40 minutes each.
  • Reported, the written case: Hacking the Case Interview says it runs about 40 minutes of preparation and produces 4 to 8 slides that you then present. CaseBasix describes analyzing a slide deck and recommending an action, with no time given.
  • Reported, differences between sources: CaseBasix describes round one as one case and one behavioral interview, while Hacking the Case Interview calls it mostly case interviews with a few behavioral questions, and only the second gives a written case length. Confirm the format with a recruiter and prepare for the case-heavy version.
  • Official, what IQVIA says about interviewing: its candidate interview tips cover researching the company, studying the job description, looking up interviewers on LinkedIn and sending a thank-you note, and say nothing about cases.

The practical consequence is the same in every version: silence from the interviewer is your cue to keep going, and a recommendation without a number or a risk reads as unfinished. If you have only practised interviewer-led cases, the case interview frameworks guide and the life sciences consulting case interview guide are the starting points. Now run one out loud the way an IQVIA interviewer expects:

Start a free case interview for IQVIA

Alex, your interviewer, asking this case's first question

Don't know how to case yet? Learn how to case

Does IQVIA publish practice cases?

No: the IQVIA pages we checked on November 12, 2026 contain no interview case. The careers tips page covers general interview habits, and the consulting careers page describes three featured areas, Commercial, Real World and Technical Consulting, and three markets: Life Sciences and Pharma, Payer and Provider, and Public Health and Government. It also names commercial excellence, patient centricity, strategy and scientific consulting as areas of interest, and says it hires both generalists and specialists across the life sciences value chain.

What IQVIA does publish is its list of commercialization solutions, which shows the problems a case gets dressed up from. Its commercialization page names Launch Strategy and Management, Pricing and Market Access, Brand and Portfolio Strategy, Commercial Analytics, HCP Engagement, Patient Engagement and Support, and Established Brands Optimization. Read the list before an interview for vocabulary, and do not treat it as a list of prompts; the page says nothing about how IQVIA interviews.

Which case types does IQVIA ask, and which case here covers each?

Seven themes recur in candidate reports and in IQVIA's own solution areas, and each has one worked case below. Hacking the Case Interview and CaseBasix report market sizing, launch, pricing and patent expiry, capacity, and portfolio or acquisition choices. The commercial model and real world evidence rows come from IQVIA's own service names, not from candidate reports.

Case typeWhere it comes fromWorked case
Launch pricing and payer accessIQVIA: Pricing and Market AccessCase 1
Patient-based market sizingReported by candidates; IQVIA: Launch Strategy and ManagementCase 2
Patent expiry and revenue defenceReported by candidates; IQVIA: Brand and Portfolio StrategyCase 3
Pipeline and portfolio choiceReported by candidates; IQVIA: Brand and Portfolio StrategyCase 4
Capacity and manufacturingReported by candidatesCase 5
Sales force and commercial modelIQVIA: HCP Engagement, Commercial AnalyticsCase 6
Written case, real world evidenceReported (written case); IQVIA: Real World ConsultingCase 7

All numbers in the seven cases are assumptions made up for practice, and the product, the client and the market in each case are fictional. State your own assumptions out loud in an interview exactly as the cases do. None of these is an IQVIA case, and none is adapted from a competitor's example.

Worked excerpt: pricing a hospital software subscription in MedSuite

IQVIA's consulting careers page says its Technical Consulting area combines technology platforms, IQVIA's data assets and consulting to address healthcare problems, so a pricing case on health software is a fair rep for that side of the firm. This excerpt works the price comparison in the library case MedSuite Technologies Hospital Software Pricing, from the start of this page, using the numbers in its own exhibits. It is a Road to Offer library case and not an IQVIA case. Choose a price before you read the table.

The prompt. MedSuite is a healthcare IT startup that has built a cloud records platform for US hospitals and needs an annual subscription price that maximizes revenue in its first year. How should it price the product?

Questions to ask first. What does "first-year revenue" mean, annual contract value or cash recognised in the year? How much do hospitals of different sizes differ in what they will pay? What does serving a customer cost, and how long does a hospital take to buy? The case answers with about 5,800 US hospitals, a 6 to 12 month sales cycle, about $30K of variable cost per hospital per year, $15M of fixed cost, and a CEO who would consider tiers but wants one price in year one.

Structure. Test three things in order: who can buy at each price, how MedSuite sits against competitors on price and features, and how many hospitals it can really win in year one. The first is arithmetic from Exhibit 1, so start there.

The math. Exhibit 1 counts hospitals whose maximum willingness to pay reaches each listed price, so each row is a separate scenario. Revenue potential is price times that count, and the rows must never be added together.

Annual priceHospitals that would buyAnnual revenue potential
$150K4,4004,400 x $150K = $660M
$200K3,0003,000 x $200K = $600M
$275K1,7001,700 x $275K = $467.5M
$350K800800 x $350K = $280M
$450K400400 x $450K = $180M

The best single price is $150K. Raising it to $200K loses 1,400 small hospitals and $60M of annual potential. Now test a price per segment, using the best listed price for each: large hospitals at $350K, medium at $200K and small at $150K.

SegmentPriceHospitalsAnnual potential
Large (500+ beds)$350K800$280M
Medium (200 to 499 beds)$200K1,400$280M
Small (under 200 beds)$150K2,200$330M
Total4,400$890M

That is $890M against $660M for one price, about 35% more, before the cost of selling and supporting three prices and before any change in how many hospitals convert.

What a strong close sounds like. "Launch at $150K, the best single price at $660M of potential, and test a size-based menu in parallel because it is worth $890M on paper. I would not commit to the menu until I had conversion and renewal data by hospital size." As a viability check, not the stated objective: if 10% of the hospitals that would buy at $150K sign in year one, 440 customers at $150K contribute 440 x $120K = $52.8M against $15M of fixed cost.

Practice the full hospital software pricing case
McKinsey

Practice the full hospital software pricing case

HealthcareMedium

Practice this case free

The loop to run on every case

Read only the prompt, write your structure and your questions, then open the solution. The cases use the same five parts so you can compare each one to your own:

  1. Prompt: the client, the decision and the constraint.
  2. Clarifying questions: what you would ask, and what the interviewer would plausibly say.
  3. Structure: two to four branches you can test, not a template.
  4. The math: every step substituted, with units.
  5. Recommendation: a decision, one number, one risk and a next step.

For the method behind it, see the pharma case interview guide, the healthcare case interview guide and case interview math practice. This page is for reps.

Case 1: Pricing a specialty therapy for payers

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A specialty biotech is launching a therapy for a chronic skin condition at a list price of $60,000 per patient per year. Its VP of market access must choose between two contracting strategies with payers. Which one should it take?

Clarifying questions. How many patients are eligible, and what share do payers let through today? How is the patient base split across commercial plans, Medicare and Medicaid? What does a rebate buy: does a deeper rebate change formulary position, and does position change how many patients get the drug? What does it cost to make and distribute a course? The interviewer gives you 40,000 eligible patients, a payer mix of 50% commercial, 30% Medicare and 20% Medicaid, and $3,000 of cost per patient. Strategy A takes standard formulary access at rebates of 25%, 35% and 55% off list for the three segments, and 25% of eligible patients are treated. Strategy B accepts a preferred position at rebates of 40%, 45% and 60%, and 40% of eligible patients are treated.

How a rebate decision splits into branches

Which contracting strategy for the launch?
  • Net price
    • Rebate by payer segment
    • Weighted by the payer mix
    • Gross-to-net share
  • Volume
    • Eligible patients
    • Share treated under each access position
    • Breakeven uptake
  • Profit
    • Net price less cost per patient
    • Times patients treated
    • Compare A and B
  • Risks
    • Payer reaction to the rebate
    • Uptake assumption
    • Price erosion later
The decision turns on whether extra volume beats the lower net price, so price and volume are tested together.

The math.

Net price = list price x (1 - rebate), weighted by payer mix

Profit = (net price - cost per patient) x patients treated

Breakeven patients = profit under A / (net price under B - cost)

  1. Strategy A net price: commercial 60,000 x 0.75 = $45,000, Medicare 60,000 x 0.65 = $39,000 and Medicaid 60,000 x 0.45 = $27,000. Weighted: 0.5 x 45,000 + 0.3 x 39,000 + 0.2 x 27,000 = 22,500 + 11,700 + 5,400 = $39,600. That is 34% below list.
  2. Strategy A revenue: 25% x 40,000 = 10,000 patients, and 10,000 x $39,600 = $396M. Profit after $3,000 a patient: 10,000 x $36,600 = $366M.
  3. Strategy B net price: commercial 60,000 x 0.60 = $36,000, Medicare 60,000 x 0.55 = $33,000 and Medicaid 60,000 x 0.40 = $24,000. Weighted: 18,000 + 9,900 + 4,800 = $32,700, which is 45.5% below list.
  4. Strategy B revenue: 40% x 40,000 = 16,000 patients, and 16,000 x $32,700 = $523.2M. Profit: 16,000 x $29,700 = $475.2M.
  5. The difference: 475.2 - 366.0 = $109.2M more profit under B, even though net price per patient is 17% lower (32,700 / 39,600 = 0.826).
  6. Breakeven volume: A's profit of $366M divided by B's margin of $29,700 gives about 12,300 patients, which is 30.8% of the eligible population. B beats A if the preferred position lifts treated share from 25% to anything above about 31%.

Recommendation. Take the preferred position: it earns about $109M more profit a year on these inputs, and it only has to lift treated share by six points to break even against a 15 point lift assumed. The risk is that the 40% treated share is the least certain number in the case. Ask for real access data from comparable launches or the payers' own coverage policies, and write the contract so that rebate tiers step up only as covered volume is delivered.

Practice a pricing case for IQVIA

Practice a pricing case for IQVIA

AutomotiveHard

Start the pricing case

Case 2: Sizing a rare disease therapy

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A biotech has an approved therapy for a rare genetic disease and wants to know the annual revenue it can reach and what would move it most. Size it.

Clarifying questions. Which country, and is the number annual patients on therapy or new patients? What does the therapy treat, and does a patient need a test to qualify? Who else treats the disease? You get: the United States, patients on therapy in a steady year, a population of 320 million, a prevalence of 1 in 20,000, an annual net price of $250,000, and one rival product.

Structure. A funnel from the population to patients on our therapy, with a rate at each step:

  • Prevalence: how many people have the disease.
  • Diagnosis: how many know it, since a rare disease is often found late.
  • Eligibility: how many fit the label (genotype, age, severity).
  • Treatment: how many of those start and stay on a therapy.
  • Share: how many choose ours over the rival.

The math.

Patients on therapy = population x prevalence x diagnosed x eligible x treated x share

Revenue = patients on therapy x net price

  1. Prevalent patients: 320,000,000 / 20,000 = 16,000.
  2. Diagnosed: 16,000 x 50% = 8,000.
  3. Eligible: 8,000 x 75% = 6,000.
  4. Treated at peak: 6,000 x 60% = 3,600.
  5. Our share against one rival: 3,600 x 50% = 1,800 patients.
  6. Revenue: 1,800 x $250,000 = $450M a year.
  7. The lever: if diagnosis rises from 50% to 70%, then 16,000 x 70% = 11,200, x 75% = 8,400, x 60% = 5,040, x 50% = 2,520 patients, and revenue is 2,520 x $250,000 = $630M. A 20 point rise in diagnosis adds 720 patients and $180M.
  8. What it is worth: if a program to find undiagnosed patients (testing support, physician education) costs $40M a year, then $180M of revenue against $40M is a ratio of 4.5 to 1, before the cost of treating them.

Recommendation. Plan on about 1,800 patients and $450M, and put the money into diagnosis before more promotion, because each step in the funnel scales revenue by the same percentage but diagnosis is the only step the company can move cheaply. The risk is that the 50% diagnosis rate is a guess: ask for claims and lab data to count how many diagnosed patients exist and how many are on a therapy today before the plan is sized. The market sizing step by step guide covers the method.

Case 3: Defending revenue when a patent expires

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A pharma company's best-selling drug earns $2.0B a year and loses patent protection in twelve months. What should it do?

Clarifying questions. How many prescriptions are there, and at what net price? How fast do generics take volume once they launch, and at what price? Does the company have a follow-on formulation, and what would it cost to launch? Can it sell its own generic? You get: 1,000,000 prescriptions a year at a net price of $2,000, so $2.0B. Within a year of generic entry, brand keeps 40% of prescriptions at the same price and generics take the other 60% at $300 a prescription. A once-daily reformulation costs $150M to develop and $50M to launch. An authorized generic would capture 30% of generic prescriptions.

Ways to defend revenue at expiry

Brand loses patent protection in 12 months
  • Keep patients on brand
    • Switch patients to a new formulation before expiry
    • Services and support that payers value
  • Capture generic volume
    • Authorized generic at launch
    • Partner with a generic maker
  • Cut cost to serve
    • Shrink the sales force
    • Move to lower cost manufacturing
  • Replace the revenue
    • Label expansion
    • Acquire or license an asset
The first branch is worth most when the new formulation is patent protected, because patients on it do not substitute.

The math.

Brand scripts after expiry = 1,000,000 x [c + 0.4 x (1 - c)], where c is the share moved to the new formulation

Brand revenue = brand scripts x $2,000

  1. With no action: brand keeps 40% of 1,000,000 = 400,000 prescriptions, and 400,000 x $2,000 = $800M. That is $1.2B below today.
  2. Authorized generic alone: generics take 600,000 prescriptions, and the company captures 30% of them, 180,000, at $300, which is $54M. Small next to the brand loss.
  3. Reformulation: suppose 30% of patients (c = 0.3) switch before expiry and stay. Brand prescriptions are 1,000,000 x [0.3 + 0.4 x 0.7] = 1,000,000 x 0.58 = 580,000, and revenue is 580,000 x $2,000 = $1,160M, which is $360M more than doing nothing.
  4. Add the authorized generic: generic prescriptions are now 420,000, and 30% of them, 126,000 x $300, is $37.8M. Total about $1,198M, which is roughly $398M above doing nothing.
  5. Breakeven: each point of switching adds 1,000,000 x 0.6 x 1% = 6,000 prescriptions, which is $12M. To recover the $200M cost in year one, the switch rate has to reach 200 / 1,200 = 17%.

Percentage Quick Math

  1. What is 14% of $450M?

    Build the percentage from 10% and 1% blocks instead of multiplying directly.

  2. Margin moves from 17% to 26%. What is the change in percentage points?

    Percentage-point change = Ending percentage - Starting percentage, kept in points, not converted to a relative percent.

  3. Revenue goes from $140M to $175M. What is the percent growth?

    Percent growth = (Ending value - Starting value) / Starting value.

Recommendation. Fund the reformulation and launch the authorized generic: together they keep about $1.2B of the $2.0B in year one, against $0.8B for doing nothing, and the program pays back if more than 17% of patients switch. The risk is that the switch depends on doctors and payers, not on the company: payers can push generic substitution, and a reformulation without patent protection protects nothing. Confirm the new formulation's patent position and how payers treat it before committing the $200M, and keep the sales force that supports the switch until it is done.

Case 4: Choosing among pipeline assets with a fixed budget

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A mid-size pharma company has $450M to spend on development next year. It has three assets in different phases and cannot fund them all. Which should it fund?

Clarifying questions. What is each asset worth if it succeeds, what does it cost to finish the current phase, and what are the odds? Are the costs paid whether or not the asset succeeds? Can the company sell or license an asset instead? The interviewer gives you the table, every figure an assumption:

AssetPhaseChance of successValue if it succeedsCost to finish
APhase III60%$900M$200M
BPhase II30%$1,800M$250M
CPhase I12%$4,000M$350M

Structure. Compare the assets on risk-adjusted value, then on value per dollar of budget:

  • Expected value: chance of success x value if it succeeds.
  • Net of cost: the cost is paid either way, so subtract it in full.
  • Per dollar: net value divided by cost, since the budget is the constraint.
  • Check the ranking against the budget and against the assumptions that could flip it.

The math.

Risk-adjusted value = chance of success x value if it succeeds - cost to finish

Return per dollar = risk-adjusted value / cost to finish

  1. Asset A: 0.60 x 900 = 540, minus 200 = $340M, or $1.70 per dollar spent.
  2. Asset B: 0.30 x 1,800 = 540, minus 250 = $290M, or $1.16 per dollar.
  3. Asset C: 0.12 x 4,000 = 480, minus 350 = $130M, or $0.37 per dollar.
  4. The budget: A plus B costs 200 + 250 = $450M, exactly the budget, for a combined $630M. A plus C costs $550M and B plus C $600M, so neither fits.
  5. Sensitivity on A: if its chance of success is only 45%, its value is 0.45 x 900 - 200 = $205M, or $1.03 per dollar, close to B's $1.16 per dollar. A stays positive until its chance of success falls to 200 / 900 = 22%.
  6. Sensitivity on B: it is positive down to a chance of success of 250 / 1,800 = 14%.
  7. The third option: C is the riskiest and the most expensive per dollar of return. If a partner would pay an upfront $60M to license it, that is cash that needs no development spending at all.

NPV and perpetuity Quick Math

  1. A project generates $6M a year forever at a 12% discount rate. What is the perpetuity value, in dollars?

    Perpetuity value = Cash flow / Discount rate.

  2. A project has a $50M perpetuity value and a $38M upfront investment. What is the NPV, in dollars?

    NPV = Perpetuity value - Upfront investment.

  3. A $6M annual cash flow grows at 4% forever and is discounted at 12%. What is the growing perpetuity value, in dollars?

    Growing perpetuity value = Cash flow / (Discount rate - Growth rate).

Recommendation. Fund A and B for $450M and look to out-license C, which turns an asset the budget cannot carry into cash. The ranking is robust because B beats C on any reasonable chance of success. The risk is the value-if-success column, which is a forecast that takes pricing, access and competition for granted: before the choice is final, ask for the assumptions behind $900M and $1,800M and rerun the table with each cut by a third. The case simplifies by ignoring discounting and the chance that development stops early, so say both out loud. The NPV case interview and pharma case interview pages go deeper.

Case 5: A biologics plant that cannot meet demand

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A biotech makes an antibody therapy in its own plant. Demand is growing faster than the plant can produce. What should it do?

Clarifying questions. How much drug does a patient use, and how much does the plant make today? How long does a batch take, and how much of the year can reactors run? What are the options: build, use a contract manufacturer, or raise output from the current plant? You get: 2.0 grams of drug per patient a year, so 50,000 patients need 100 kg, 75,000 need 150 kg and 100,000 need 200 kg in years one, two and three. The plant has 4 reactors, each running 15 batches a year, and each batch makes 2.5 kg before purification and 2.0 kg after, an 80% yield. A contract manufacturer charges $1.1M a batch and makes 2.0 kg a batch. Adding a reactor costs $60M, and the company's own cost is $0.6M a batch. A purification upgrade costing $15M would lift the yield from 80% to 90%.

Structure.

  • Demand: patients times grams per patient, by year.
  • Supply: reactors times batches times kilograms per batch.
  • The gap, by year, in kilograms and in batches.
  • Options: build, contract, raise the yield, or a mix, compared on cost and timing.

The math.

Capacity = reactors x batches per reactor x kg per batch

Batches needed = gap in kg / kg per batch

  1. Capacity today: 4 x 15 x 2.0 = 120 kg a year.
  2. The gap: year one 100 - 120 leaves 20 kg spare, year two 150 - 120 is 30 kg short, and year three 200 - 120 is 80 kg short.
  3. In batches at 2.0 kg: year two is 15 batches and year three is 40 batches, which is 40 / 15 = 2.7, so about 3 more reactors.
  4. Build: 3 reactors cost $180M. Running the 40 extra batches in house costs 40 x $0.6M = $24M a year, against 40 x $1.1M = $44M a year at a contract manufacturer. The difference is $20M a year, so the build pays back in 180 / 20 = 9 years if you ignore the plant's fixed costs and the two year build time.
  5. Raise the yield: at 90%, a batch makes 2.5 x 0.9 = 2.25 kg, and the plant makes 60 x 2.25 = 135 kg. The year three gap falls from 80 to 65 kg, which is 33 contract batches (65 / 2.0 = 32.5) costing $36.3M, so the upgrade saves 44 - 36.3 = $7.7M a year and pays back its $15M in about 2 years.
  6. Year two with the upgrade: 150 - 135 = 15 kg, or 8 contract batches, about $8.8M.
Practice a plant capacity case for IQVIA

Practice a plant capacity case for IQVIA

ManufacturingMedium

Start the plant case

Recommendation. Do the $15M yield upgrade now and cover the remaining gap with a contract manufacturer, then decide on a build once real patient numbers show whether demand holds near 200 kg. The upgrade pays back in two years, while the build needs about nine years and a two year wait, in a business where the patent window limits the time over which it earns anything. The risk is that the contract manufacturer has its own capacity limit and a batch of its own risk: ask for a capacity commitment and the quality record before the plan depends on it, and have the regulator's view on a process change in hand, since a change to purification can need approval. Capacity cases follow the same pattern as the operations case interview.

Case 6: Sizing a sales force and its channel mix

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case. A pharma company is launching a specialty neurology drug and must decide how many field reps to hire and whether some doctors should be reached remotely instead. Recommend a commercial model.

Clarifying questions. How many target prescribers are there, and are they all equally valuable? How many calls does a rep make in a year, and what does a rep cost? What does a remote contact cost, and is there evidence it works as well? You get: 6,000 target neurologists, of which 1,500 are Tier A and 4,500 are Tier B. Tier A should get 24 calls a year and Tier B 8. A rep makes 1,600 calls a year at a loaded cost of $300,000. A remote call costs $60 and the platform costs $0.5M a year.

Structure.

  • Workload: prescribers by tier times calls per year.
  • Capacity: calls per rep, and so the number of reps.
  • Cost: reps, remote calls and the platform.
  • Evidence: what the remote channel actually delivers, and how to test it.

The math.

Calls needed = prescribers x calls per prescriber

Reps = calls needed / calls per rep

  1. Tier A: 1,500 x 24 = 36,000 calls. Tier B: 4,500 x 8 = 36,000 calls. Total 72,000.
  2. All in person: 72,000 / 1,600 = 45 reps, costing 45 x $300,000 = $13.5M.
  3. Mixed model: keep Tier A in person and cut Tier B to 3 in person and 5 remote. Tier B in person is 4,500 x 3 = 13,500 calls, so the total is 36,000 + 13,500 = 49,500, and 49,500 / 1,600 = 30.9, so 31 reps, costing $9.3M.
  4. Remote cost: 4,500 x 5 = 22,500 calls x $60 = $1.35M, plus the $0.5M platform. Total mixed model cost: 9.3 + 1.35 + 0.5 = $11.15M.
  5. Saving: 13.5 - 11.15 = $2.35M, or 17%.
  6. How much can the mixed model afford to lose? Suppose Tier B detailing supports $30M of revenue at an 80% contribution margin, so $24M of contribution. The $2.35M saving equals 2.35 / 24 = 9.8% of it. If remote contact keeps more than about 90% of the effect of in person calls, the mixed model wins.

Recommendation. Launch with 31 reps and a remote program for Tier B, since it costs about $2.35M less in year one. Do not commit to it as a final model: run a pilot in a few regions where Tier B doctors get remote contact against matched regions where they get visits, and decide from prescribing at six months. The risk is that the 90% threshold is an assumption built on a made-up revenue figure; ask for the actual revenue and prescribing by tier before the pilot is sized.

Case 7: A written case on a real world evidence study

Prompt. This is an original practice case, not an IQVIA case, and it is written in the shape candidates describe for the final-round written case. You receive the packet below and a question: should the company fund a real world evidence study to win better formulary access with payers? Prepare a three slide answer.

Packet. Slide 1 gives the context: a therapy with a net price of $20,000 per patient per year and a gross margin of 85%. Slide 2 gives the payers:

PayerCovered livesCoverage todayCoverage if the study succeeds
National commercial plan40MRestrictedOpen
Regional plans25MNot coveredRestricted
Medicare plans55MRestrictedRestricted

Slide 3 gives the rules: per 1M covered lives, open coverage yields 50 patients on therapy a year, restricted coverage 20 and no coverage 0. The study costs $12M and the company puts the chance that payers accept the evidence at 60%.

Structure. Read the question first, then build the answer from the packet:

  • Value if it works: patients gained by payer, times net price, times margin.
  • Value in expectation: weighted by the chance of success.
  • Cost and payback: $12M against the expected yearly gain.
  • Risks: what could make the evidence fail, and how long payers take.

The math.

Patients = covered lives (M) x patients per 1M lives

Expected gain = chance of success x patients gained x net price x margin

  1. Today: the national plan is 40 x 20 = 800 patients, regional 0 and Medicare 55 x 20 = 1,100. Total 1,900 patients.
  2. After success: the national plan is 40 x 50 = 2,000, regional is 25 x 20 = 500 and Medicare stays at 1,100. Total 3,600.
  3. Patients gained: 3,600 - 1,900 = 1,700, of which 1,200 come from the national plan and 500 from the regional plans.
  4. Revenue gained: 1,700 x $20,000 = $34M a year, and at an 85% margin that is $28.9M of contribution.
  5. In expectation: 0.6 x 28.9 = $17.3M a year.
  6. Payback: $12M / $17.3M = 0.69 years, about 8 months of full effect.
  7. Breakeven chance of success: 12 / 28.9 = 41.5% for the cost to be recovered in one year.

How the three slides read.

SlideTitle (one message)Content
1Fund the study: it returns about $17M a year in expectation on a $12M costThe recommendation and the payback
2The gain comes from two payers: 1,200 patients from the national plan and 500 from the regional plansThe table by payer, with Medicare unchanged
3The study pays back in a year if payers accept it at least 42% of the timeBreakeven, the risk and the next step

Recommendation. Fund the study. It pays back inside a year if payers accept the evidence at least 42% of the time, and the company puts that at 60%. The risk is timing: payers may take a year or more to change coverage, so the gain starts late and the payback stretches. Agree with the national plan, before the study starts, which outcome measures it will accept, since a study that answers the wrong question gains nothing. The written case interview guide has timed formats for this exercise.

How do you turn these cases into a prep plan?

Run each case once cold, then repeat only the step that broke. Cases 1 and 3 test percentages chained across steps, Cases 2 and 6 test funnels and capacity, Cases 4 and 5 test choices under a constraint, and Case 7 tests reading a packet and writing slides. The sequence below uses all seven in about a week, and the IQVIA case interview guide covers the rounds around them.

How to run each case

  • Read only the prompt, then cover the solution. Reading a worked answer feels like learning and produces none of it

  • Write your structure in two minutes. Candidates report candidate-led cases, so your structure is the first move

  • Ask for the numbers you need before you calculate. In a candidate-led case you drive, and the interviewer answers what you ask

  • Say every assumption out loud. A pharma client asks where each rate came from

  • End on a decision with a number and a risk. A framework without a decision is the most common way a case ends badly

  • Compare to the worked solution and name the one step that broke. Diagnosis turns seven cases into a plan

  • Convert that break into a scored rep: market sizing, structure or case math. A graded rep on the exact skill beats another read

  • Then run a full library case out loud from the case library. Holding all five parts together under time is what the interview tests

For the sector mechanics behind these cases, read the life sciences consulting case interview guide and the top pharma consulting firms comparison. If you are also recruiting at other analytics-led healthcare firms, the ZS Associates case interview guide covers a close peer and the Simon-Kucher case interview guide covers pricing cases in depth. More worked cases from other firms are in the case interview examples hub, and the pricing strategy cases page extends Case 1.

Sources and further reading (checked November 12, 2026)

Frequently asked questions