Four best practices for a startup’s pharma launch

Four best practices for a startup’s pharma launch

By Sara Weaver, JUICE Pharma

LEK Consulting recently published a summary of the success rate for pharmaceutical company launches since 2004. Maybe this statistic won’t surprise you, but I was surprised that 50 percent of U.S. biopharmaceutical launches underperformed by at least 20 percent.¹

This issue is obviously critical, but especially so for pharmaceutical start-ups. Unlike their Big Pharma cousins, most start-ups just don’t have the same level of launch experience as Big Pharma, and they also lack much of the key infrastructure taken for granted in the top ten organizations; and of course launch revenue is critical for a fledgling company.

The following are four best practices to consider for a pharma launch, with an eye towards pharma startup companies.

Culture of collaboration

There are a myriad of key factors involved in a successful launch, which require a culture of collaboration  and a launch team that knows one another, trusts one another, and relies upon one another. The unique and individual product challenges require collaboration between partners to prepare for a successful launch.

Prioritizing dedicated days or workshops for the full launch team to participate in planning sessions allows the entire commercial team to pressure test launch plans from all perspectives. Planning is everything, and we all know that there are always obstacles that arise during the process. A team accustomed to reaching out to one another to discuss issues is critical to success. As a long-time agency professional, the most successful launch teams I’ve seen have been those who have a deeply rooted culture of collaboration (or collaborative communication).

As an AOR account leader, I view my role on a launch team as the facilitator of collaboration – removing obstacles to enable the team to stay focused on the end goal. Account leaders are adept at driving (skillfully and tactfully) through cross functional barriers to align interests and solve problems.

Insight mindset

Scientific expertise and establishing a mindset for clinical innovation is central to a successful pharma startup. Oftentimes, however, startup organizations don’t spend enough time gaining insight from their ultimate prescribing audience. Investor pressure tends to push startup leaders to rely upon the insights of academic opinion leaders – exactly the people upon whom their investors rely. In many cases, those same opinion leaders don’t have broad sway over the actual practitioners who prescribe the product. Importantly, they have no sway over the patients who benefit from their therapies. Here’s where the right agency partner can add great value. Agencies are filled with large numbers of professionals who have participated in many launches, and it is useful in your initial search to prioritize disease state experience. They know a lot about the treatment of your target indication already, and they also know how to ask the right questions. Finally, the digital revolution is all about data, right? A key way to differentiate among the many agencies vying for your business is to assess their ability to utilize data to answer your key launch questions.

Net/net, gathering accurate insights for a startup launch involves aligning on what you know and do not know, forming hypotheses to be tested, and being diligent to assess each hypothesis and then making changes based upon your increased knowledge base. The more agile a brand team is at following this formula, the more efficient and successful it will be at launching.

Infrastructure investment

The most common questions I get from biotech companies (small and mid size) is, “How do I get omnichannel for my needs” or “Omnichannel seems great in theory, but it’s more than what I need”. This makes me chuckle and think of a comment made by Steve Jobs, who is reported to have said that without the innovative spreadsheet program VisiCalc, Apple would not have been successful. People bought Apple II computers to run the software. Just like starting with good insights, omnichannel works best when the decision is made early to invest in the technical infrastructure to support the future use. Startups know what they want, but they generally don’t have the technical expertise in-house or resources to invest in a platform that optimizes cost and quality. Selecting a partner with the capabilities to support building the program and platform provides many cost efficiencies and savings with shared leadership of these efforts under one roof. All within a budget that is understandable and affordable.

Experience

The careful reader will note that experience in launching products is a unifying theme in this treatise. Still, it deserves its own section if only to summarize the qualities of the experience that a marketing director for a startup should look for in their partners. For example, disease state experience adds enormous value, even if the leader is deeply steeped in the disease state. Of course there will be team members who are on board for reasons other than disease state, and insights will need to be broadly shared. Secondly, that person will want a partner who can ensure alignment on the right launch platform for the delivery of both promotional and unbranded messaging, utilizing a platform that is effective day one in a cost-effective fashion, and is scalable for the growth of the brand. Finally, look for a partner that has the right mindset: one who has been through the process, and who is accomplished at effectively pushing past any barrier to partner with you for brand success. Ultimately, it’s about accelerating your brand’s success by overcoming the inevitable obstacles that arise in any launch.

Reference

1. Rosenorn, P. et al., (December 18, 2020). “Biopharma launch trends – lessons learned from L.E.K.’s Launch Monitor”. Retrieved from: https://www.lek.com/insights/ei/biopharma-launch-trends-lessons-learned-leks-launch-monitor

Sara Weaver is senior VP, account director at JUICE Pharma.

 

Editors note: An edited version of this article appears in the August 2023 issue of Med Ad News.