Achieving Launch Excellence in Asia-Pacific Transcript ... - IMS Health

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Yes that’s right. Companies are acknowledging, but not yet consistently responding to, the new demands of the changing launch environment. The issues are essentially threefold. Firstly, we are seeing different decisions makers today. The traditional prescriber-based sales model is ineffective in commodity markets. Companies need to address all stakeholders and not simply the prescribers these days. I see. Secondly, there are different market dynamics. Fewer launches today are achieving an even modest therapy market share of let’s say 5% in their first year. We are seeing today that even the best market share uptakes are not as high as previous years. What would be the reason for that then? Well, really it is to do with a decline in the impact of the traditional market model externally, and internally it’s more to do with a lack of preparation and readiness to launch as well as a failure to align objectives, and identify and incentivise payers & policy makers. I see. You mentioned a third reason for launch failure? Yes, pharmaceutical companies are faced with differing timescales in different countries. Companies need to understand the optimal range and timing of prelaunch activity at a global and at the country level. Most importantly, companies are not capitalising on opportunities presented in the first six months of launch, and our research and experience shows that the sales seen during this crucial period determine sales thereafter. So companies really need to make an impact in the first six months of launch. Actually I would say now that we can narrow that window even further to the first three months as we have seen in our 2008 study that within the six-month window there lurked an even shorter critical time frame; on average, three months is the period in which a launch agent establishes its share of the dynamic market in its therapy area. In other words, it has become evident that sales efforts in the first three months tend to determine sales trends for the first two years of a product’s life cycle. Really, it’s as short a period as that? That’s a real challenge then. Well, yes it is. But it is within the power of companies to make a success of a launch by being fully prepared while adapting to the dynamic market to ensure that the initial launch trajectory of a new product is created by the drug being 2
prescribed for new patients, by having existing patients switched to it or by being added on to their existing regimens. OK, so we have identified the 3 issues facing companies launching new products. How should they be addressing them, since you say that it is in their power to make a difference? Well, taking the first point about dealing with different decision makers, companies should have a powerful and pertinent value proposition for the product that is compelling and differentiated from the existing therapies in the category. This means ensuring their messaging are consistent yet adapted to the different decision maker audiences, and aligned through country communication. That can be quite a challenge. Can you give any advice on how this can be done? Yes, of course. For example, to do this successfully with payers, pharmacos need to understand payer motivations such as budget impact, cost-effectiveness and therapeutic value to meet the value criteria necessary for optimal approval. It comes down to understanding and catering to your audience. OK, so getting the value proposition for the product right for each target audience is crucial. What specific actions should companies be taking prior to launch to communicate their value proposition effectively? Firstly, companies need to identify who is responsible for the funding flows and formulary decisions for the related disease areas both now and in the future. Then they need to identify the decision makers controlling these funding flows and understand what drives their buying decisions. From here they can craft their value proposition for new products during the Phase Three of clinical trials, and keep building momentum and interest throughout the trials and beyond in terms of real world patient outcomes and value over other therapies. Right so it is an ongoing process. That’s right. And during the launch process they should be segmenting payers and target areas of the value dossier accordingly. Obviously they also need to build the commercial go-to-market strategy in tandem. And what about dealing with the different market dynamics you mentioned at the beginning? Companies need to build long-term launch strategies for non-prescribing customers through an effective stakeholder engagement strategy. This is required to drive market expansion. They need to consider all stakeholders such as policy makers, payers, patients and prescribers. It’s not enough anymore to target just prescribers. 3
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Achieving Launch Excellence in Asia-Pacific Transcript ... - IMS Health

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