WorkflowCorporate Strategy & ESG

Partnering Opportunity Triage

Partnering opportunity triage that answers every inbound pitch within days, with the earlier decision brought back

Every inbound pitch scored and answered within days, earlier decisions brought back.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo38secondsfor six agents to read, check and score a 14-slide pitch, every field cited to its slide
demo1business dayto a signed first reply on the sample pitch that arrived at 08:41
target2.5business daysmedian to a first reply, inside the 10-business-day promise
target93%of pitches answered within 10 business days, above the 90% target
In short

What is Partnering Opportunity Triage?

It is the work of taking in partnering opportunities — pitches from outside companies through the partnering portal, the BD inbox, bankers and partnering meetings — and deciding which go to a reviewer and which get a courteous decline. Partnering Opportunity Triage gives that work to six agents that read, check, score and draft, while the Search & Evaluation lead confirms the routing and signs every reply.

How to choose AI solutions for life sciences →

Updated

The problem

Why inbound pitches wait weeks for an answer

Pitches arrive through the partnering portal, the BD inbox, bankers' teasers and the notes from partnering meetings. Each one has to be read, logged and scored against the therapeutic area's search criteria before anyone can decide whether it goes to a reviewer or gets a courteous decline. That takes about an hour and a half a pitch, and at hundreds of pitches a year the backlog sits in inboxes — the company that pitched waits, past the reply you promised.

The risk is in what nobody remembers and what nobody should open. The same molecule comes back under a new code, from a renamed company or through a banker's process, and without memory a reviewer reads it again and the company hears a different answer than last time. A file marked confidential, opened before a CDA is in place, can taint your own programmes — the boundary has to hold before anyone reads.

demo16.5business daysmedian first reply in January, before the solution — against a 10-day promise
estimated1.5hoursto read, log and score one pitch by hand
Where one pitch's hours goestimated
By hand1.5 days
With the solution0.1 days
  • Logging the pitch from its channel and checking for confidential markings0.2 → 0.0 d
  • Reading the deck and filling the register0.5 → 0.0 d
  • Checking whether we have seen the asset before0.2 → 0.0 d
  • Scoring fit against the area's search criteria0.3 → 0.0 d
  • Choosing the reviewer0.1 → 0.0 d
  • Writing and signing the reply0.2 → 0.0 d

Estimated split of the work on one inbound pitch, in hours: about 1.5 hours by hand, and about 6 minutes with the solution, for the person who confirms the routing and signs the reply. That is the 1.4 hours a pitch the dashboard counts as returned.

How it works

How a pitch moves

Six agents check confidentiality, read, find repeats, score, route and draft a reply for every pitch; the Search & Evaluation lead signs each one.

What comes in
Pitches in4 channels · portal, inbox, meeting notes, bankers
Agents at work
Confidentiality Gateholds confidential files
Then
Pitch Reader11 cited fields
Duplicate Finderearlier decisions
Then
Fit Scoreragainst area criteria
Then
Routersuggests a reviewer
Reply Writerletter for signature
A person decides
S&E leadconfirms routing, signs each reply
What comes out
Bubble on the fit map
Routed to a reviewer
Reply sent on the clock
One case, step by step

One morning of inbound pitches, from arrival to a signed reply

Northwind Bio, Wednesday 7 October 2026: 16 pitches since 22 September, 13 of them on the fit map. Priya Raman, Director of Search & Evaluation, confirms every routing and signs every reply. Here is her morning, screen by screen, in the working solution.

  1. 01Wednesday morning

    Every pitch on one fit map

    Priya Raman · Director, Search & Evaluation

    Each open pitch is a bubble: across by fit score against the area's search criteria, up by stage, sized by the deal on the table and coloured by therapeutic area. Nine open pitches score 65 or more, in the route-to-a-reviewer zone, with $11.2B on the table. One, PN-12, scores under 50 and gets a courteous decline. Above the map are three that are not on it yet: Tessaly, held unopened for legal, and two new arrivals, TV-3 and WXB-17.

    “Every company that pitches us deserves an answer, even when it's no.”

  2. 02One day late

    The ring round each bubble is its reply clock

    Priya Raman · Director, Search & Evaluation

    The ring fills as the 10-business-day promise is used — amber in the last two days, red when late. HM-208, Hollowmere Therapeutics' Fc-silenced CD40 ligand antibody in Sjögren's disease, arrived through the portal on 22 September; its first reply was due on 6 October. It scores 74 and routes to Dr. Maya Chen, and the drafted reply already apologises.

    Drafted reply: “Our apologies that this reply reaches you a day later than we promised.”

  3. 0308:41

    A new pitch arrives, and six agents read it

    The agents

    Tamsin Vision in Dublin emails TV-3 — a tyrosine kinase inhibitor eye implant lasting 6 months, for wet age-related macular degeneration. Priya clicks to read it in place. The Confidentiality Gate checks the cover note and file labels: non-confidential. The Pitch Reader reads 15 pages into 11 register fields, each with its page. The Duplicate Finder checks 1,284 earlier pitches and finds no match above 60%.

    Each agent's step shows as it runs, with what it found and how long it took.

  4. 04Under a minute later

    TV-3 lands in the high-fit corner

    Fit Scorer · Router · Reply Writer

    Scored against the eye care criteria, version 2, TV-3 lands at fit 79, Phase 2 — in the high-fit, human-data corner. The deal on the table is $950M, $70M upfront, from comparable deals. The Router suggests Dr. Elena Vasquez, the eye care reviewer, and the Reply Writer drafts the acknowledgement to Dr. Orla Fennick beside the map.

    “TV-3 lands at fit 79 · Phase 2 — route to a reviewer.”

  5. 05Signed · day one

    She signs on day one of a ten-day clock

    Priya Raman · Director, Search & Evaluation

    Priya reads the letter — thanks for the non-confidential overview, the area is one Northwind is actively looking at, the eye care team led by Dr. Elena Vasquez will review it — and signs and sends it from the map. The clock shows the reply went in one business day, and Elena's 5-day clock for her view starts.

    “Reply sent to Dr. Orla Fennick · first reply in 1 business day · audit trail updated.”

  6. 06The register

    QH-1187: every field linked to its slide

    Pitch Reader

    Qinhe Biologics in Suzhou sent QH-1187, a TL1A × IL-23p19 bispecific in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, through the portal on 5 October. Six agents read, checked and scored it in 38 seconds. The 14-slide deck becomes 12 register fields: asset, company, company history, modality, mechanism, indication, stage, data highlights, IP, the ask, contact and confidentiality marking. Each has its slide number and a confidence.

    The Pitch Reader leaves a field empty rather than guess.

  7. 07Seen before

    The same molecule, under a new name

    Duplicate Finder

    QH-1187 is 94% similar to RGB-07, pitched by Rivergate Bio and reviewed by Dr. Maya Chen on 12 May. The reasons are listed: the same two targets and antibody format, the same manufacturing partner and cell line on the CMC slide, slide 2's note that Rivergate Bio is now Qinhe Biologics, and the same contact on a new email domain. Maya put it on the watch list then — and the condition is now met.

    Dr. Maya Chen, 12 May: “Interesting dual mechanism. Come back to us with Phase 1b data in ulcerative colitis.”

  8. 08Fit 86

    Six weighted points, a reason for each

    Fit Scorer

    Against the immunology criteria, version 4, QH-1187 scores 86. Strategic fit gets 27.9 of 30, because ulcerative colitis is on the priority list. Differentiation at launch gets 16 of 20: two single-target TL1A antibodies are already in Phase 3, so the edge is the combination. Stage and human evidence gets 16 of 20, on week-12 clinical remission of 33% against 7% on placebo. Modality gets 10 of 10, rights and IP 9 of 10, and competitive space 7 of 10. The routing to Maya waits for Priya to confirm.

    The Fit Scorer uses only the approved version of the area's criteria.

  9. 09Held at the boundary

    A confidential file stays sealed

    Confidentiality Gate · Dana Okafor, BD legal counsel

    Tessaly Therapeutics emailed on 6 October with an attachment labelled confidential. The Confidentiality Gate read only the cover email, held the file unopened and logged its name, size, fingerprint and time. The Reply Writer drafted a CDA request — Northwind cannot receive confidential material before an agreement is in place — and Dana Okafor sends the standard mutual CDA.

    “No agent or person has read the attachment. It stays sealed until a CDA is signed or it is returned.”

  10. 10Year to date

    A first reply in 2.3 days, down from 16.5

    Sam Patel · BD operations

    359 pitches this year: 353 read and scored, 136 at fit 65 or more, 127 routed to a reviewer, 43 with an agreed next step, 20 CDAs signed. The median first reply fell month by month from 16.5 business days in January to 2.3 in October. The rest — 226 pitches — were answered by Search & Evaluation with a decline and its reason, or a merge, without taking a reviewer's time.

    “I want the late ones before they're late.”

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who answers a pitch.

The same inbound flow, seen by the four people who carry it — what it looked like before, and what it looks like now.

PR
Priya RamanDirector, Search & Evaluation · Northwind Bio
Director, Search & Evaluation
Before
Owns the inbound flow across four channels, reads every deck to score it, and watches the reply promise slip to weeks.
Now
Sees every pitch on one fit map with its reply clock, confirms the routing and signs the drafted reply beside the map.
MC
Dr. Maya ChenImmunology reviewer · owner of the immunology criteria
Immunology reviewer
Before
Re-reads molecules she has seen before under another name, with no record of what she said last time.
Now
Gets fewer, better pitches with the cited summary, the fit reasons and her own earlier decision attached.
DO
Dana OkaforBD legal counsel · CDAs
BD legal counsel
Before
Has to trust that nobody opens a file marked confidential before a CDA is signed.
Now
Confidential files are held unopened at the boundary, with only the receipt logged and a CDA request drafted for her approval.
SP
Sam PatelBD operations · routing rules, service levels, reports
BD operations
Before
Finds out a reply is late after the company has chased it.
Now
Sees the funnel, the median first reply and each reviewer's service level, with nudges two business days before a promise is missed.
Built on the engine

6 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Six agents check confidentiality, read, find repeats, score, route and draft a reply for every pitch; the Search & Evaluation lead signs each one.

Confidentiality Gate

Reads only the cover email and the file labels before any other agent reads a file; holds anything marked confidential unopened, logs the receipt and tells BD legal.

  • Never opens a file marked confidential
  • Never forwards a held file
  • Logs metadata only — file name, size, fingerprint and time
Pitch Reader

Reads decks, portal forms, emails and meeting notes, and fills 11 register fields — asset, company, modality, mechanism, indication, stage, data highlights, IP, the ask, contact and confidentiality marking — each with the slide or page it came from.

  • Every value carries a citation
  • Leaves a field empty rather than guess
Duplicate Finder

Finds earlier pitches of the same asset — a new code, a renamed company or a banker's re-pitch — by target, format, manufacturing partner, company history and contacts, and brings back what was decided and what has changed since.

  • States the reasons for every match
  • Never merges without a person
Fit Scorer

Scores each pitch on six weighted points — strategic fit, differentiation at launch, stage and human evidence, modality, rights and IP, competitive space — against the area's written search criteria, quoting the evidence for each.

  • Uses only the approved criteria version
  • A reason and a citation for every point
Router

Suggests the reviewer from the routing rules and each reviewer's open load; below fit 50 it suggests a courteous decline.

  • A person confirms every routing
Reply Writer

Drafts the acknowledgement, next-step letter, courteous decline or CDA request in the house style; a decline names the real reason and says it is about fit, not quality.

  • Never sends — a person signs
  • No commitments on terms; always restates the non-confidential boundary
S&E lead

Confirms routing and signs replies. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any pitch, in plain words

Ask about a pitch, the register or an area's search criteria — or say what to change. Answers point to the slide or page they came from.

Have we seen QH-1187 before?

Yes — it is the same molecule as RGB-07, pitched by Rivergate Bio and reviewed by Dr. Maya Chen on May 12, 2026. The company renamed itself Qinhe Biologics in August. Maya's note then: “Come back to us with Phase 1b data in ulcerative colitis.” The new deck has exactly that — week-12 clinical remission 33% vs 7% on placebo. Suggested: route to Maya with the May note attached.

What happened with the confidential file?

Tessaly Therapeutics emailed on Oct 6 with an attachment labelled CONFIDENTIAL — data package v3. The Confidentiality Gate held it unopened and logged only the file name, size and fingerprint — no agent or person has read it. A CDA-request reply is drafted for your approval; Dana Okafor then sends our standard mutual CDA.

Why are we declining PN-12?

PN-12 from Pellucid Neuro scores 49. Two things hold it back: it is preclinical — our neuroscience criteria ask for human target engagement — and gene therapy is outside the modalities neuroscience is taking on in 2026. The decline letter is drafted, says it is about fit and not the science, and invites them back with first human data.

How fast are we replying?

Median first reply over the last 30 days is 2.5 business days; 93% of pitches had an answer within our 10-day promise. Over the last 90 days the median is 3.1 days, and 4.0 year to date. In January the median was 16.5 days.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

The fit mapEvery open pitch by fit and stage, sized by the deal on the table, ringed by its reply clock — with the selected pitch's drafted reply beside the map.
A late reply in redHM-208's clock is a day past its promise; the inspector shows the ten segments, the deal, the reviewer and an apologetic draft.
Agents at workA new pitch read in place: the confidentiality check, the reader, the duplicate check, the fit score, the routing and the draft, each step timed.
Where a new pitch landsTV-3 at fit 79, Phase 2, $950M on the table — routed to the eye care reviewer, the acknowledgement drafted.
Signed and sentThe reply goes in one business day; the clock and the audit trail update.
One pitch, every field citedThe deck with its highlighted passages beside the decision and the register fields, each linked to its slide.
The fit score, point by pointSix weighted points against the area's approved criteria version, each with its evidence.
Seen beforeThe earlier pitch of the same asset, how similar it is and why, what the reviewer said then and what has changed.
Held at the boundaryA file marked confidential, sealed and unread, with the receipt logged and a CDA request drafted for signature.
The opportunity registerOne row per asset — indication, mechanism, area, stage, channel, fit, status and reply clock — searchable and filtered by area and status.
ReviewersA lane per reviewer and for legal: what waits for routing, what each reviewer holds and the 5-day clock for their view.
The dashboardFunnel, arrivals and replies, the median first reply month by month, channels, area by stage, decline reasons and reviewer service.
Your rulesSearch criteria per area with their approved version, fit weights, service levels, the confidential boundary and routing.
Governance

Built for the confidential boundary: cited, confirmed, signed.

Confidential stays unopenedAnything marked confidential is held at the boundary before any agent reads it. Only the cover email is read; the file's name, size, fingerprint and time are logged — never its content — until a CDA is signed or the file is returned.
Every field cites its pageEach register value links to the slide or page it came from, with a confidence. Every fit point carries its evidence, and an empty field means the pitch did not say.
A person routes and signsThe Router suggests and the Search & Evaluation lead confirms every routing. The Reply Writer drafts and never sends: a person signs every reply, and no reply commits to terms.
Only the approved criteriaFit is scored against the approved version of each area's search criteria. A change is proposed to the area's owner, who approves it. A change to the weights re-scores every live pitch.
Earlier decisions come backThe Duplicate Finder states its reasons for every match and brings back the earlier reviewer's words and decision. It never merges two records without a person.
Every step on the audit trailEach agent step, routing, signature and reply is recorded with who, what and when, and the audit trail is kept for seven years.
Configuration

Your search criteria and promises, not ours

What each area wants, how fit is weighted, how fast you reply and where the confidential boundary sits are all settings.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Search criteria per areaImmunology v4 · approved Jul 14, 2026Priority indications, what we want to see, modalities in scope and rights we look for — per area; changes need the area owner's approval
Fit score weightsStrategic fit 30 · differentiation 20 · stage and human evidence 20 · modality 10 · rights and IP 10 · competitive space 10Up or down five points at a time, with the total shown against 100; every live pitch is re-scored
First reply to the company10 business daysUp or down one day at a time
Reviewer view5 business days from routingUp or down one day at a time
Nudge before a promise is missedOn — two business days aheadOn · off
Auto-acknowledge portal submissionsOn — “we will reply within 10 business days”On · off
Hold anything marked confidential, unopenedOn — locked by legalCannot be switched off. Alongside it: log what was received (name, size, fingerprint, time) and a reply that asks for a CDA first, both on
Routing rulesBy area to its reviewer; anything confidential to Dana OkaforChange a rule's reviewer or add a rule
Connections

Works with every channel a pitch comes through

Partnering portalportal submissions, acknowledged on arrival
BD inboxemails and their attachments, with the cover note read first
Non-confidential decksPDF and PowerPoint overviews, read slide by slide
Partnering meeting notesnotes from partnering meetings, read like any other pitch
Bankersteasers and process letters, with their bid dates
Prior review decisionswhat each reviewer decided before, and why
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
2.5days
median to a first reply, inside the 10-business-day promise
Before16.5 days
With agents≈ 2.5 days
target
93%
of pitches answered within 10 business days, above the 90% target
first reply on time
estimated
≈ 1,000hours a year
of reading and first-pass scoring returned to the team

“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample pitches · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate, about 1.5 hours a pitch before deployment. Deal values are the company's ask or the median of comparable deals. People, companies and assets named on this page are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What Search & Evaluation teams ask us.

What is partnering opportunity triage?

It is the work of taking in partnering opportunities — pitches from outside companies through the partnering portal, the BD inbox, bankers and partnering meetings — and deciding which go to a reviewer and which get a courteous decline. Partnering Opportunity Triage gives that work to six agents that read, check, score and draft, while the Search & Evaluation lead confirms the routing and signs every reply.

How does it handle files marked confidential?

The Confidentiality Gate reads only the cover email and the file labels before anything else happens. A file marked confidential is held unopened, with only its name, size, fingerprint and time logged, and a CDA request is drafted for BD legal. The boundary is a setting locked by legal.

Does it recognise an asset we have seen before under another name?

Yes. The Duplicate Finder compares targets, format, manufacturing partner, company history and contacts with earlier pitches and prior review decisions. It states its reasons, shows how similar the pitches are, and brings back what the reviewer decided and what has changed — but never merges records without a person.

How is the fit score calculated?

On six weighted points — strategic fit, differentiation at launch, stage and human evidence, modality, rights and IP, and competitive space — against the approved version of the therapeutic area's search criteria. Each point shows its evidence. A score of 65 or more routes to a reviewer, 50 to 64 is a second look and under 50 a courteous decline.

Does it send replies on its own?

No. The Reply Writer drafts the acknowledgement, next-step letter, decline or CDA request in the house style, never commits to terms, and never sends. A person signs every reply, and each one is recorded on the audit trail.

Do people stay in control of routing and decisions?

Yes. The Router suggests a reviewer from the routing rules and their load; the Search & Evaluation lead confirms every routing or chooses another reviewer, asks for more data or declines. Changes to an area's search criteria need that area owner's approval.

Can we set our own criteria, weights and reply promises?

Yes. Each area's priority indications, wanted evidence, modalities and rights, the fit weights, the first-reply and reviewer-view promises, nudges, portal acknowledgements and routing rules are all settings. Changing a weight re-scores every live pitch.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your areas' search criteria, routing rules, reply templates and a sample of past non-confidential pitches and decisions — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own pitches first.

See it on
your pitches.

We'll run Partnering Opportunity Triage on a sample of your own past non-confidential pitches.