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Transcript:
MARAH: Hello, I'm Marah Walsh and welcome to the PharmaVOICE Webcast Network and this episode of the Industry Vision.
I'm here today with Lisa Morris, Director of Global APLD Services at IMS.
Welcome Lisa. Thank you so much for joining us.
LISA: Thanks Marah, it’s my pleasure.
MARAH: Today our conversation is going to focus on dynamic market and key considerations for brand strategy.
Lisa, how does the dynamic market relate to marketing sizing, particularly in terms of distinguishing between the size of an untreated and treated diagnosed patient population?
LISA: IMS research across 10 chronic therapy areas has uncovered two important findings. The dynamic market are those prescriptions from new therapy starts, switches and add ons represents only 10 percent of the total prescriptions on an annual basis. The second finding was that the new therapy starts represents 60 percent of all prescriptions of the dynamic market. That’s followed by the switches, which are about 30 percent, and the add ons, which are 10 percent.
To size the market, you need to determine the total treated and untreated population. When looking at the untreated patient population, you need to determine how many potential patients may present to a physician where a diagnosis is made and treatment is initiated. Gaining a deep understanding of untreated population can help inform assumptions on the number of newly diagnosed treated patients that can flow through the dynamic market because they’re potential patients for new therapy starts.
MARAH: How should companies define the optimal patient and physician targets for their brand?
LISA: To gain a full understanding of the patient characteristics and behaviors in both the dynamic and static markets is critical. Once you’ve done that, then companies need to isolate those patients that flow through the dynamic market. Then determine the breakdown of new, switch, and add on. Using that information, you can assess the unmet needs and the current brand performance. For instance, who’s the market leader versus who’s the segment leader. Furthermore, how does their brand compare? Are there any strengths or weaknesses that you can identify?
You can also look at the brand share in the static market to see if one brand has greater adherence. Understanding that would also help you understand why it might be performing that way. Much of this work should be initiated during the clinical development, so that the clinical trials will support the target patient profile from a marketing standpoint. It should be refreshed during development particularly for those conditions with other new launches.
MARAH: What’s the role of the dynamic market in terms of understanding which patient segments are driving brand or market growth or decline?
LISA: That’s a great question. Brands may have different strategies for growth based on patient populations or they may have a single strategy.
In the first case, a brand could be going after new therapy starts for one patient segment and switches for another. Another brand may be focusing only on the switches if it does not have a first line indication. Brand plants have, for a long time, included some view of patient segments.
More recently, however, brands are starting to examine performance against those goals in an ongoing manner. Understanding performance against the true desired outcome, for one example may be switches, is key to identifying the need for course corrections and implementing the new promotional programs to improve performance.
MARAH: Given that many markets are so crowed, especially those that include therapies for chronic conditions, how can companies most accurately determine the rate of switches needed to achieve market share targets?
LISA: We’re asked that question a lot. Sizing the market and understanding the patient flow in terms of the average number of patients that typically present to a prescriber versus those that receive a switch from one medication or another is really critical.
If you’re only looking at the new prescription, you don’t really fully understand the size of the patients that will switch. With new prescriptions alone, you cannot understand the relative contribution of the true new patients versus the switch patients versus the add on patients compared with just those continued patients who are getting a new piece of paper.
MARAH: How can the dynamic market be applied to manage markets analysis?
LISA: The dynamic market provides greater clarity on how patients flow through the system. Whether they’re newly diagnosed in prescribed therapy for the first time versus they’re on an existing therapy and they switch to another brand. You can also have situations where the prescriber has decided to complement an existing therapy by prescribing an add on product.
All three of these patient situations are impacted by the managed markets. The formulary status and the co-pay can influence the treatment choices. For instance, for new therapy starts, there are situations where plans may have a preferred brand as indicated by the tier status or co-pay. If you’re not the preferred brand, it’s hard to get first line status in those plans. Product switches can be impacted by tier status and co-pay in a similar manner. Finally, products that are indicated for add on therapy may be restricted by some plans as it could have a significant impact on the budget.
It’s important to understand how managed markets can have a positive and negative impact on a brand’s performance in the dynamic market. For a number of years, plans have promised the ability to drive a brand’s performance. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have examined the plan performance by looking simply at NRXs and TRXs. Examining the dynamic market now allows them to see is the plan really switching therapy, are they driving the business that they promised? This insight is critical in terms of the contract strategy you might have and the negotiations that you overtake with a plan. Once the contract is in place, pharma can then examine the performance against those goals.
MARAH: So as a final question, Lisa, why is it important to look beyond the physician and apply patient centric metrics holistically in the brand strategy and commercial planning?
LISA: The marketplace that our pharmaceutical manufacturers are playing in today is much more complex. There are multiple stakeholders which require a multidimensional approach. There are a number of influencers, such as the patient and the payers and the prescribers. Understanding the influence that all three of those have in treatment decisions is critical.
MARAH: Thank you Lisa. This has been a lot of very good information. And thanks so much for being with us today.
LISA: Marah, it’s been my pleasure.
MARAH: There is a lot more to cover on this topic, and you can access the entire interview at www.IMShealth.com/lifelink.
And check out other interviews in our special marketing excellence series, which features new analysis from IMS and covers additional topics related to new product launches and inline brands.
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Industry Vision.
Have a great day.
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