Case Study:
Product Launch Strategy
Situation
A pharmaceutical company anticipated market approval for a drug that served patients in a highly competitive category of infectious disease. The company was primarily concerned that its positioning and launch strategy was not as comprehensive and cohesive as it needed to be, and uncertain of the drug's acceptance and penetration into the market. The company was aware that another pharmaceutical company planned to launch a similar drug soon after its own product introduction. Still, it had not focused its research on the specific nuances of the competitive landscape, as revenue forecasts were based in-part on internal speculation.
Client Need
Putnam was asked to address a number of critical issues regarding the current and potential competitive landscape. Specially, Putnam was asked to:- Assess the clinical differences between the client's drug and a competitor's upcoming drug, both expected to enter the market within a short time frame
- Recommend actions for the client to pursue to establish its drug in the marketplace prior to its competitor's launch
- Evaluate and address the risks of the client's proposed pricing scheme across managed care, physicians, patients, and patient advocacy groups
- Identify how all competitors in the marketplace would likely respond to the client's proposed pricing for its drug
- Determine how the client could best utilize its established reputation and its considerable infrastructure investments to successfully introduce this drug and grow its market share
Putnam's Role
Putnam integrated a broad range of information to produce comprehensive launch and positioning recommendations. Putnam first conducted in-depth analysis on competitors' pricing, positioning, promotions and pipelines. Using this information, we created multiple clinical data possibilities to aid in conversation with managed care and physicians. To assess managed care expectations and barriers, Putnam also conducted dozens of panel interviews before summarizing and analyzing probable reactions.
To understand the price expectations and value trade-offs by physicians, Putnam conducted over 80 interviews to discuss price sensitivity, opinions on products and clinical outcomes. We then evaluated the influence of patient advocacy groups to determine the importance of their reaction to patient-focused communications, drug attributes and pricing. Putnam also identified analogous product situations and analyzed these products' launch, pricing and positioning strategies.
Putnam ultimately tested its findings in extensive financial and strategic analyses to produce clear presentations of clinical data, projected market shares, revenue forecasts, key sensitivities and scenario models.
Recommendations
Putnam confirmed that the client's drug held enormous potential in an expanding therapeutic category of the infectious disease marketplace. However, implementing a sub-optimal strategy could cause the product to lose value to competitors. Based on our work we recommended:- Focusing on launching as quickly as possible after approval to create a separation between the client's and competitor's product launches
- Promoting the efficacy of the client's drug versus its competitors
- Preparing for contingencies, as an aggressive launch and pricing strategy from the competition was anticipated
- Developing a pricing scheme that would maximize drug acceptance and value while leveraging the client's existing reimbursement assistance program
- Approaching identified patient advocacy groups to better understand their drug attribute needs and priorities
- Educating physicians about misperceptions to mitigate the financial impact of "patient warehousing"
Client Benefits
The client was able to use the core of the in-depth analysis to form a comprehensive and cohesive launch strategy for their drug. They reduced the level of uncertainty regarding market events and confirmed how the likely event outcomes should be incorporated into their planning process. They had knowledge of the true value of the drug and the actions steps for how they could maximize that value.The client followed our recommendations and had a successful product launch. The drug is now projected to earn billions in revenues over its lifetime. It is also a key component in the client's portfolio franchise in this infectious disease category.