Hire a CI analyst — or outsource the function?

Most companies that end up talking to Prognyx were, a month earlier, drafting a role. That is the honest competitor: not a platform, but a hire. This page compares the two as fairly as we know how, including the cases where the hire is plainly correct.

What hiring actually buys you

An in-house competitive-intelligence analyst is a permanent employee whose whole week you direct. They sit in your meetings, see your unpublished data, learn your programme's history, and can be redeployed onto business development support, diligence, board materials or anything else that comes up. That accumulated internal context is real, and it is something no outside provider can replicate.

It is the right purchase more often than a vendor's website will admit. It is also a bigger commitment than the salary line suggests.

The cost, described honestly

This page will not print a salary figure it cannot source. What it can do is name the components, because the mistake companies make is comparing a base salary to a retainer and stopping there. A fully loaded post is:

• Base compensation, at whatever the market clears in your location for someone who can read a protocol.
• Employer costs — payroll taxes, insurance, benefits, pension, statutory leave. A material multiplier on base in every jurisdiction.
• Equity, which is not free even when it is not cash.
• Tooling and data. A CI analyst will, correctly, ask for at least one database subscription within their first quarter — and those vendors do not publish list pricing either.
• Management time, from someone senior, indefinitely.
• Recruitment cost — agency fees where used, plus the executive hours spent on a search.

Add those and the annual figure is meaningfully above the number in the offer letter. Against that, Prognyx publishes one number: from $2,000/mo, scoped to your pipeline, with no employer cost, no tooling line, and no notice period.

The two costs nobody budgets

Hiring lag. A search, a notice period and a ramp is a long time in a competitive landscape. The readout that matters may land inside it, and an unfilled role covers nothing at all.

Key-person risk. A single in-house analyst is a single point of failure. When they leave — and in a specialised market, they eventually do — the competitive picture leaves with them, and the search restarts from the beginning. That risk is structural, not a comment on anyone's loyalty.

When hiring in-house is the better call

Clearly and without hedging — these are good reasons and we would say the same in a scoping call:

• The work requires your confidential data. If the analysis only makes sense against unpublished results, internal forecasts or board strategy, that belongs inside the company.
• You need more than competitive intelligence. A good analyst absorbs diligence support, BD research and board materials. A scoped external service does one thing.
• You are building a function, not filling a gap. If the plan is a CI team in two years, the first hire is the foundation and should be yours.
• You have several therapeutic areas. Prognyx covers oncology only; an employee covers whatever you assign.
• The volume is genuinely full-time. A broad portfolio with constant BD activity can absorb a whole week, every week. If so, hire.
• Your investors expect the capability in-house. Sometimes the org chart is the point, and that is a legitimate reason.

When outsourcing is the better call

• The need is real but not a full week. One or two lead assets in one therapeutic area rarely fills a role — and a half-used hire is the most expensive way to buy anything.
• You need coverage now. A retainer starts after one scoping conversation; a hire starts after a quarter.
• Runway makes headcount the wrong instrument. A cancellable monthly commitment is a different risk profile from an employment contract when the next raise is not yet closed.
• You want domain depth immediately. Oncology-specific reading — endpoints, pre-specification, hazard ratios reported without a p-value — is the whole skill, and it does not need a ramp here.
• You want the method published. The sourcing rule and the audit gate are written down and can be checked against the output. A new employee's method is discovered over time.

The middle path

These are not mutually exclusive and the sequence often runs one into the other. Companies use an outsourced watch to cover the gap while a search runs, or to establish what the role should actually contain before writing the job description — a real deliverable is a better spec than a guess. Some keep both afterwards: the employee for internal and confidential work, the outside watch for continuous coverage of the competitive set. If a hire is right for you, we would rather say so early than sell around it.

How to decide in one question

Comparison last reviewed 1 September 2026. This page describes any employer or recruiter from its public product information and does not claim to be exhaustive; Prognyx has no affiliation with any employer or recruiter. Verify current scope and pricing with the vendor directly before any purchase decision. Names and trademarks referenced belong to their owners.