What is the biggest challenge in project prioritization in biopharma?

Incomplete information. Teams rarely have all the data needed to make clean investment decisions. Standardizing decision criteria and housing that data centrally reduces the risk of bias influencing which biopharmaceutical project advances.

How does the GRIDALL framework support risk management?

GRIDALL makes risk management explicit at every stage. It tracks project risk from the goal level, so by the time a risk becomes an issue, decision-makers have the full context — including what goal is at stake and what prior decisions were made — to act effectively.

How can a PMO improve regulatory compliance in biopharma projects?

By assigning dedicated regulatory project managers and building regulatory compliance checkpoints into the governance framework. Clear roles at each review stage — from Development Review to Portfolio Committee — reduce the chance that regulatory requirements fall through the gaps during busy timelines.

What role does resource management play in portfolio prioritization?

Resource management is the operational side of prioritization. Without a clear view of who is doing what across the portfolio, organizations can't accurately weigh the true cost of keeping a project alive. Zombie projects often persist because resource consumption isn't tracked transparently.

How do you calculate the potential value of a biopharma project?

A standard approach uses an NPV calculator that factors in development costs, expected revenues, and probability of success. The challenge is that the inputs — particularly market size and drug efficacy claims — carry significant uncertainty. Standardizing how teams apply these inputs matters as much as the calculator itself.

Master Project Prioritization in Biopharma: Essential Strategies by Cora Systems

About this Episode

This episode covers how to sharpen project prioritization in biopharma, featuring Joe Stalder, executive director of program management at Mirati Therapeutics.

Joe brings a broad background in pharmaceutical development — from pre-clinical research through clinical development and commercialization — with past roles at AstraZeneca, Calithera Biosciences, and Genentech. He speaks regularly at biopharma project and portfolio management conferences and is completing a book on managing drug development projects.

Stream or download "Keys to Effective Project Prioritization in Biopharma" below.

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5 key takeaways from this episode

Project prioritization in biopharma depends on consistent, bias-free data housed in a central repository — not on the loudest voice in the room.
The GRIDALL framework (Goals, Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, Lessons Learned) gives teams a structured path that strengthens risk management and project risk tracking across every biopharmaceutical project.
Good governance means defining decision-making roles so clearly that decisions stick — and don't get reversed the following week.
Zombie projects drain resource management capacity and signal a governance failure. Portfolio discipline means being willing to kill them and making that decision stick.
Culture determines which frameworks succeed. Project managers shape culture, which means they have to earn buy-in before any process can take hold.

Episode Highlights: “Keys to Effective Project Prioritization in Biopharma” with Joe Stalder

Joe's role in biopharamaceutical project development

I've been working for biopharmaceutical companies for about 10 years, managing projects mostly at the development stage. That means when a drug candidate passes from research into clinical development — before it goes commercial — that's my space. Biopharmaceutical project management has grown more specialized over time, with separate project managers covering research, development, commercial, and regulatory compliance, among other functions.

When I started, one project manager handled everything. Today there are clinical pharmacology project managers, CMC project managers, and more — each reflecting how tightly timelines are managed across different stages of drug development.

My career has focused on late-stage oncology: phase 2 and phase 3 drug development. That's been the core of my work for the past five years.

How did you get started? I was part of a postdoc fellowship interested in running clinical trials. Over two years, I was given the chance to work in corporate project management, and I really liked it. It's a generalist role — you get to tap into a lot of fields — and the success it requires maps well to my nature. I'm goal-focused, I like pulling people together, and I like keeping work streams moving.

GRIDALL delivers value as a complete project risk framework

GRIDALL — Goals, Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, Lessons Learned — is an improvement on ADI or RAID Logs. Every project starts with goals. Every goal carries project risk. Every risk can become an issue, every issue requires a decision, every decision produces an action, and every action generates a lesson that feeds back into future goals.

The value comes from the sequence: each prior step provides context for the next, making it a strong communication tool for stakeholders. When a decision-maker needs context, you can trace back from the current issue to the original goal — that's what they need to act.

GRIDALL also works as a PMO framework. Organizations can explore gaps in their methodology — asking whether they have effective risk management practices, clear issue logs, or structured decision frameworks. Joe's company, Groundswell Pharma Consulting, hosts resources for each GRIDALL component.

It's not limited to the biopharmaceutical industry. Anyone who manages projects can apply it, and Joe has been promoting it outside pharma with strong results.

Data-Driven governance guides better portfolio decisions

Good governance starts with good data. In biopharma, teams typically operate with about three-quarters of the information they actually need — because biological systems are complex and drug efficacy claims only become clear through trial. The goal is to standardize what's available: development costs, expected revenues, and an NPV calculator to model decision criteria, all in a central repository that prevents gaming of the numbers.

A governance framework then sequences the right bodies in the right order. A Development Review Forum assesses the development plan. A Commercial Review Forum checks whether sales forecasts hold. A Portfolio Committee makes the final investment call. Getting that sequence right — and having clearly defined roles at each stage — prevents the indecision and contradictory decisions that threaten project continuity.

For decision-making roles, Joe recommends RAPID from Bain & Company, though frameworks like DARE from McKinsey and DACI are also available. The key is picking one and making the rules clear enough that everyone knows their role without thinking. That's more important than choosing the perfect framework.

The right information, a clear governance structure, and well-understood roles: those are the three components that consistently guide good decisions across biopharma.

Market dynamics shape strategic portfolio management

Portfolio management in the sciences is hard because clean decision-making data rarely exists. Joe's guide for teams: start with a menu of all investment opportunities, identify the criteria needed to evaluate each one consistently, and build a framework that captures both the science and the economics. That's how you account for market opportunity and scientific potential in the same conversation.

Resource management across competing priorities is where most organizations lose discipline. Pet projects — scientifically interesting but economically weak — get protected. Joe uses the word "zombie projects" for efforts that a governing body tries to kill but that keep running because the team won't let go. Their impact on the portfolio is real: time, money, and focus that could go elsewhere.

Good portfolio management means exploring what's committed versus what's on life support, quarter-over-quarter — and having the governance authority to make those calls stick. No process work compensates for a Portfolio Committee that lacks the standing to enforce its own decisions.

See Cora's project prioritizations tools in action

Effective project prioritization in biopharma takes more than a good methodology — it takes software built to handle the complexity.

Cora's strategic Portfolio Management software platform gives PMO leaders a single place to track project portfolios, apply consistent scoring criteria, and make data-driven decisions about which projects move forward.

Whether you're managing drug development timelines, aligning projects to corporate strategy, or working to eliminate zombie projects from your portfolio, Cora gives you the visibility to act with confidence. Explore our Life Sciences project management software to see how teams like yours use it.

Request a demo to see Cora in action.

Show Notes

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn here

Bonuses

Learn the keys to effective “project prioritization in biopharma” by accessing a complimentary guidebook by Joe Stalder at corasystems.com/prioritizationguide

Tune in to a bonus webinar by Joe Stalder on “project prioritization in biopharma” by visiting corasystems.com/effectivewebinar