Anika Therapeutics streamlines path to commercialization
Anika Therapeutics streamlines path to commercialization
By Michael Monovoukas
With medical technology (medtech) companies predicted to generate over half-a-trillion dollars in 2023, the industry shows no signs of slowing, despite the uncertain global economic environment. By integrating technology into medical diagnosis and treatment, medtech companies are paving the way for a healthier future for all – but they have some barriers to overcome first. Many of these startups are operating with lean resources, and the high cost of commercializing new products can be debilitating. This amount can vary significantly depending on factors, such as the complexity of the product, target market, the regulatory environment, and overall marketing strategy, but it’s not uncommon for medtech companies to spend as much as 40 percent of revenue on sales efforts.
Leaping over the commercialization hurdles
Anika Therapeutics Inc., a global joint preservation medtech company that creates and delivers meaningful advancements in early intervention orthopedic care, faced headwinds in 2019 when the company was ready to go to market with its latest innovation, Tactoset, an HA-Enhanced, minimally invasive regenerative bone void filler used for the treatment of small cracks in the bone, known as insufficiency fractures or bone marrow lesions (BMLs).
Tactoset can be life-changing for patients of any age who are seeking a less-invasive treatment for chronic BMLs, which can be a result of degenerative, metabolic, inflammatory, traumatic, or neoplastic processes. Tactoset is an alternative treatment option for bone pain from BMLs, whether in the knee, hip, ankle, hand, or shoulder that can be injected directly into the cracks in the bone. During the healing process, Tactoset hardens and mimics the properties of the natural bone, effectively treating the fracture. This alternative treatment quickly relieves the pain and enables patients to resume their active lifestyles with minimal surgical intervention.
Additionally, Tactoset is now indicated for hardware augmentation, such as soft tissue anchors, and can provide greater than twice the pullout strength of non-augmented anchors. Augmenting with Tactoset increases the density of poor-quality bone caused by cysts or osteoarthritis, allowing for placement of anchors in the ideal repair location, and resulting in additional suture anchor pull-out strength.
While commercializing a new medical product always has its challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic made it especially more difficult for Anika as it limited the avenues to engage with potential customers. Anika was unable to network in person to uncover potential users of Tactoset, as doctor’s offices stopped taking meetings and entry into hospitals and clinics was restricted. This was a major setback for Anika as its sales reps primarily relied on site visits and word of mouth to build relationships and seek out new opportunities.
Despite these obstacles, Anika pressed forward, relying heavily on its lean commercial team to troubleshoot different ways to identify and introduce doctors to Tactoset. In addition to pandemic-related limitations, sales representatives were unfamiliar with the specialty and were manually researching surgeons in their territories, often just with search engine tools.
“I relied on Google to research physicians and sites of care, which was time consuming and often inaccurate or incomplete,” says Garrett Robinson, director of sales for the southeast region at Anika. “I couldn’t see where surgeons were operating or the number of procedures they were doing, which is critical information.”
It was unfathomable that with the mountains of data and advanced research tools available that Anika’s best option was search engines – the same tools consumers use to search for kitchen appliances or other basics – to identify potential customers.
“We relied heavily on dislocated or inaccurate information and didn’t have a way to validate if the doctors we identified were in fact the right people to contact,” says Ben Joseph, VP of commercial and corporate development at Anika. “There were just too many blind spots, and it was taking too long to meet our goals.”
With Tactoset being a key growth driver within its current regenerative solutions portfolio, Anika needed a better solution.
In the image, see the sample physician, Dr. Susan Bird, for a medical device company searching for relevant physicians that perform knee replacement surgery.
A modern solution to a timeless challenge
After researching ways to obtain reliable data sets, including purchasing static lists, Anika invested in a medtech-specific commercial platform. Anika sales representatives were immediately able to identify and prioritize top conversion and new user targets, as well as view detailed information including a physicians’ competitive interactions, educational background, publications, and practice location. “We were able to find better leads that go beyond just data pulls. It enabled us to experience the data, not just see it, and hit our goals faster,” Joseph says.
In the expanded profile, the platform expands on Dr. Bird’s industry experience such as past payment as a key opinion leader, other surgeries in other sites of care with which she is associated, and a section for hand-written personal notes from the sales team.
Anika’s sales reps used the platform to not only validate some of the assumptions they had made about launch targets, but to also identify other surgeons that they hadn’t known to target. “It was a really good tool to open us up to other opportunities,” Joseph says.
Robinson adds, “The platform essentially provides a blueprint map that points to surgeons most likely to use our product. I use it multiple times a week to find quality insight in preparation for meetings, saving enormous amounts of time, which means less time researching and more time selling.”
With new data insights, Anika sales reps were able to drive more sales and more effective call plans that surfaced more than 500 relevant surgeons, and more than $20 million in pipeline opportunities.
“As we continue to improve as a company and launch new products, we plan to expand and leverage Anika’s use of our data platform to its fullest capacity,” says Robinson. “Having access to a comprehensive platform that provides valuable direction leading to potential customers is imperative to our success.”
In the site-of-care profile, information is uncovered in reverse order, searching for Dr. Susan Bird to uncover new sites of care where additional, relevant orthopedic surgeons are discovered with just a few clicks.
While the commercialization process for medtech companies is complex and different for each product, having a commercial platform that efficiently and accurately identifies and brings new opportunities to the surface is invaluable. More importantly, it helps medtech innovators like Anika Therapeutics bring their life-changing products to more patients faster.
Michael Monovoukas is co-founder and CEO of AcuityMD.
