Celebrating compliance successes
5th Annual Patient Compliance, Adherence, and Persistency Conference AstraZeneca’s Commitment to Compliance Astrazeneca is focused on getting the best from every medicine it makes by exploring all the ways it can be used or improved. This commitment to innovation, which reaches beyond research to creativity throughout the organization, was recognized at CBI’s inaugural Strategic Patient Adherence Awards. AstraZeneca won both awards for two of its patient-compliance initiatives — In Your Corner and Heart Horizons — which were deemed exceptional. In Your Corner — Best Branded Program AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals’ In Your Corner campaign received the honor for Best Branded Program for its cancer therapeutic Arimidex. AstraZeneca wanted to help early breast cancer survivors understand that there may be more they can do in their fight against the disease. The campaign’s objectives were to: bridge the support gap during the abandonment period by leveraging breast cancer survivors’ experiences to convey information from a source with credibility — a source that has “walked in their shoes”; educate women about the risk for recurrence; and provide content on overall health issues to help patients feel “back to normal,” both physically and emotionally. According to Matt Winkler, consumer promotion manager at AstraZeneca, the program needed to deliver tailored messages that educated, inspired/motivated, and reinforced adherence. With the assistance of agency partners — Wunderman, Medical Broadcasting Co., Epsilon, Avenue-A/Razorfish, Zenith — the In Your Corner AstraZeneca team more than exceeded expectations. Mr. Winkler says after being on the market for about a year, the program enrolled 500% more than the target goal. “In Your Corner was designed to provide a sense of community and a resource to keep the support constant,” says Lisa Feher, group account director at Wunderman. Heart Horizons — Best Integrated Program Winner of the Best Integrated Program was a second AstraZeneca team representing the Heart Horizons campaign developed for the hypertension treatment Toprol-XL. According to AstraZeneca’s John Heilman, consumer brand leader for Toprol-XL, the key challenge was addressing the barriers to adherence. Research showed that patients were resistant based on a number of factors, including: lack of concern about or acceptance of the condition; worry about side effects; worry about drug interactions; cost; lack of interaction with the physician; resistance to chronic therapy; and lack of information about the product. To address these barriers, the team devised a fully integrated customer relationship management program designed to convert, establish persistence, and retain patients along the continuum. The program includes five call-to-action areas: doctors, e-mail, mail, a toll-free number, and the Web. AstraZeneca and its agency partners — SimStar, Avenue A/Razorfish, Epsilon, Quantum, Xchange, Edelman, Zenith, DML Consulting — developed in-office physician materials; national media, both print and TV; toprol-xl.com; SEO/SEM paid search engines; online and offline Heart Horizons lifestyle/disease-management tools, including product rebates and other incentives; and pharmacy resources. “The communications and messaging help patients understand that hypertension treatment doesn’t work if they only take the drug when it’s convenient and that they must manage their hypertension throughout their life,” says Rob Rebak, president of SimStar. improving the compliance paradigm was the focus of the 5th Annual Patient Compliance, Adherence, and Persistency conference held April 10-11, 2006, in Philadelphia. About 100 industry leaders were joined by a distinguished group of experts, who provided their insights and best practices on how pharmaceutical companies, as well as their communications and technology partners, can improve compliance and persistency. During the conference, sponsored by the Center for Business Intelligence, attendees were treated to two packed days of sessions and roundtables. One of the highlights of the event was the inaugural Strategic Patient Adherence Awards, which honored two exceptional compliance initiatives — best integrated program and best branded program — both of which were awarded to teams from AstraZeneca. Inspiration to change Soren E. Skovlund, senior advisor, manager for corporate health partnerships, at Novo Nordisk A/S, and chairman of the conference, provided insights on balancing health economics and commercial wins to achieve sustainable competitive business advantages and to balance social and commercial goals through patient-adherence programs. Among the two-day event’s other sessions were: leveraging the true potential of interactive e-marketing to influence consumer behavior by Dadi Akhavan, president and CMO of E-centives Inc.; personalizing patient-compliance initiatives by leveraging psychological indicators by Kevin J. Wildenhaus, Ph.D., director, behavioral science and chief product architect, HealthMedia; and assessing how high barriers to access and high copays lead to noncompliance for severely ill patients by Grant Lawless, medical director, corporate accounts, Amgen. PharmaVOICE welcomes comments about this article. E-mail us at [email protected]. 1. The gang’s all here — PharmaCentra colleagues gather in front of their booth during the conference: Dan Berman, Chairman and CEO; Barry Green, Executive VP and CCO; Emily Strader, Account Manager; Leslie Mostel, Account Manager; and Shanna Reed, Account Manager. 2. Daryl Madiera, Compliance Manager at MeadWestvaco, and Hally Ryan, Research Associate, HealthMedia, share a moment during the event. 3. Marty Mason, Account Director at PharmaDesign, demonstrates his services. 4. Amanda Rhodes, VP, Behavioral Solutions, MicroMass Communications; Kari Price, Director, Marketing and Communications, MicroMass Communications; and Kelly White, Behaviorist, MicroMass Communications, take a moment during the two-day event. 5. Sharing a laugh together are Nkechi Enere representing the event’s sponsor, CBI, and Grant Corbett, Prinicipal, Behavior Change Solutions, one of the judges. 6. And the Winners are … Robert Palmer, Partner, Marketing Solutions, at SimStar (an AstraZeneca program partner); John Heilman, Consumer Brand Leader, AstraZeneca, Best Integrated Program Award Winner; Matt Winkler, Consumer Promotions Manager, AstraZeneca, Best Branded Program Award Winner; Tanaya Shepley, Management Supervisor, Wunderman (an AstraZeneca program partner). 7. Robert Nauman, Principal, Biopharma Advisors, and Barbara VanCaeseele Amberg, Director, Business Development, at CBI, catch up on events. 8. About 100 attendees gathered in Philadelphia for the 5th annual conference. 9. Jean Lalonde, CEO of Pleio Network, addresses the panel. 10. Soren Skovlund, Senior Advisor, Manager, Corporate Health Partnerships, Novo Nordisk, and chair of the conference, addresses attendees. 5th Annual Patient Compliance, Adherence, and Persistency Conference About 100 industry executives gathered in Philadelphia in April 2006 for CBI’s fifth annual conference addressing patient compliance and persistency. Attendees had the opportunity to explore best practices, share ideas, and formulate strategies to address one of the industry’s major areas of concern.