Java Python MGRC30003: Decision Analysis & Simulation, 2024/25 – Summative Individual Coursework
Administration
This is the summative individual assessment for this unit. It accounts for 70% of the overall unit mark. You must answer all of the questions from both cases attached. Please submit your work, presented either in a single Word or PDF format document. The assessment is to be completed individually and independently.
1st Case: TechPharma’s New Vaccine Development Project
It is January 1 of year 0, and Tech Pharma is trying to determine whether to continue development of a new vaccine. The following information is relevant. You can assume that all cash flows occur at the ends of the respective years.
Clinical trials (the trials where the vaccine is tested on humans) are equally likely to be completed in year 1 or 2.
There is an 80% chance that clinical trials will succeed. If these trials fail, the FDA will not allow the vaccine to be marketed.
The cost of clinical trials is assumed to follow a triangular distribution with best case £100 million, most likely case £150 million, and worst case £250 million. Clinical trial costs are incurred at the end of the year clinical trials are completed.
If clinical trials succeed, the vaccine will be sold for five years, earning a profit of £6 per unit sold.
If clinical trials succeed, a plant will be built during the same year trials are completed. The cost of the plant is assumed to follow a triangular distribution with best case £1 billion, most likely case £1.5 billion, and worst case £2.5 billion. The plant cost will be depreciated on a straight-line basis during the five years of sales.
Sales begin the year after successful clinical trials. Of course, if the clinical trials fail, there are no sales.
During the first year of sales, Tech Pharma believes sales will be between 100 million and 200 million units. Sales of 140 million units are assumed to be three times as likely as sales of 120 million units, and sales of 160 million units are assumed to be twice as likely as sales of 120 million units.
Tech Pharma assumes that for years 2 to 5 that the vaccine is on the market, th