Successful Life-Cycle Results Come From Reversing The Process William S. Machtiger, President Many efficacious products have recently or will soon reach the end of their patent protected life cycle. Major diseases related to the cardiovascular system, metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal complaints, and respiratory system may no longer be the franchise growth engines that they were for almost two decades. This explains the current focus by companies on specialty strategies. These markets offer niche opportunities for unmet needs, which require less commercialization and life-cycle costs. There seems to be growing competition for lower-peak-sales-per-year products than in the recent past. Studies show that a successful return on investment may be achieved from products that have sales in the $300 million to $800 million peak range, particularly if the life of the products is stretched 10 years to 12 years. A product’s success story can only be told at the end of a well-managed life cycle. And reversing the process will be the reason for a happy ending. There are key waypoints in navigating a product’s life cycle. An effective global pharmaceutical strategy (GPS) content roadmap builds brand equity that is resonant, long acting and has competitive advantage. Optimal branding engages stakeholders at all stages of a product’s life and motivates active uptake, acceptance, adherence, and persistence. The following suggestions are ways in which marketers can reverse the process for maximum result. Focus on the market as it will be at launch. The most crucial aspects for marketers to understand are the clinical gaps, scientific benefits, market access issues, and customer motivations that define the labels as they will be at launch and beyond. Because the road to launch is long and frequently changes along the way, marketers need to be flexible enough to identify and provide alternative development and commercialization pathways. This strategy requires marketers to adopt a rigorous and continuous process to understand the clinical competitive landscape by conducting key opinion leader, practical clinical, regulatory, and patient/customer analysis. Engage and empower a multifunctional team early on in the process. To be successful, there must be energetic multifunctional support of sales performance from proof-of-product concept to generic or over-the-counter marketing. This partnership builds equity through branded science, value creation, and clinically significant messaging that can be promoted through careful planning and active execution. A program that uses the best ideas from functional stakeholders — clinical and scientific, legal and regulatory, manufacturing and quality control, commercial and competitive intelligence, as well as management — assures an optimal foundation for life-cycle performance. Work backward to assure the best middle age. Product value content is established at launch and builds through expanded indications, new formulations, Phase IV, and other clinical-trial results. Properly developed messages drive medical education and communication to physicians, promotion to patients, and perceptions to payer that maximize brand equity through product maturity. Marketers need to know where they want to be at the end and work back from there to achieve success. Constantly look forward. Understanding how the market will evolve, based on core messages, market metrics, and competitive scenarios, will drive realistic sales expectations. To achieve better results, marketers need to build a life-cycle management discipline that frequently challenges and retests messages, customer knowledge, and competitive intelligence. Late-stage strategies with planned actions, such as new formulations or relaunch positions, will produce returns at the highest stage of a product’s profit potential, just before patent expiration. Look back from the goal line. If the brand-equity strategy is well-built it should survive for many years after a product has reached its sales peak, and the product should still have significant profit even at lower sales levels. Many branded products — even some with generic or OTC competitors — still generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. New formulations for these compounds afford opportunities for new indications and for prepatent expiration sales. A product’s success story can only be told at the end of a well-managed life cycle. And reversing the process will be the reason for a happy ending. Prescription For Strategy LLC Market Research Prescription for Strategy LLC, Yardley, Pa., is a consulting company and a division of Axis Healthcare Communications Inc. For more information, visit rx4s.com. September 2004 VIEW on Marketing

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