They say one thing is certain in Pharma brand Launch; understanding patient and HCP journeys is never easy. First you will be faced by a wall of real-word data, each brick different in material, size and shape, formed by diverging internal and external vendor data sources. You must rebuild it brick-by-brick until standardized and linked. The latter proves most difficult when dealing with highly unstructured clinical data. Then, once your data is fit-for-purpose, so must your analytics. Tools should be easy to understand and use, reducing the burden of data management and technical ability, while cohort parameters need to be quickly and easily adjustable to determine variable impacts.

They say one thing is certain in Pharma brand Launch; understanding patient and HCP journeys is never easy. First you will be faced by a wall of real-word data, each brick different in material, size and shape, formed by diverging internal and external vendor data sources. You must rebuild it brick-by-brick until standardized and linked in Pharma brand Launch. The latter proves most difficult when dealing with highly unstructured clinical data. Then, once your data is fit-for-purpose, so must your analytics. Tools should be easy to understand and use, reducing the burden of data management and technical ability, while cohort parameters need to be quickly and easily adjustable to determine variable impacts. Miss on any of the above and you probably just missed your launch goals. Achieve these processes though and you’ll understand not just what is occurring, but why it is, creating a superior view of HCP behavior triggers and the patient journey.

In order to start building beyond awareness, we need to address some of the changes in the marketplace that put pressure on our ability to reach and effectively inform HCPs about new treatment options. One of these challenges is the speed in which treatment landscapes are changing, the increased complexity of new MOAs, and the sheer volume of options in a given therapeutic space. Take oncology for example. In 2018 alone, there were more than 44 new drugs approved by the FDA—that’s almost an average of one new treatment a week. Facing a flood of information, the average community oncologist is tasked with identifying a more complex, niche patient for targeted therapy. They have to consider multiple lines of therapy at once to ensure correct sequencing that optimizes response and addresses symptomology without risking limiting options in later lines of therapy, and they have to manage all of these decisions with shared decision-making, effective expectation setting, and overall patient care.

While this era of innovation is incredibly exciting for patients and potential outcome improvement, it creates a challenge to break through the noise for an HCP who is already in information overload. There are also industry challenges to consider as well. Bringing new molecules to market is increasingly more expensive. We are seeing pharma hedging bets and not funding some brands until 6 months pre-launch, a timeline that used to be closer to 2 years, thus shortchanging strategy and message development lead time and leading to a default mentality to previous launch plans. Another challenge is the potential lack of change when it comes to our industry’s marketing approach. We generate campaigns and messages to focus on the differentiators. Sometimes these differentiators are obvious and meaningful in clinical practice. Other times, and more commonly now, these differentiators require explaining with complex data and require an HCP’s traditional treatment approach to evolve beyond what may be intuitive. This complexity, in both the science and its potential impact to an HCP’s already established behaviors must be taken in to account to successfully drive beyond awareness