By Daniel Ghinn 
Understanding the evolving perceptions, hopes and concerns of healthcare professionals with an interest in a drug’s therapy area, and their reactions to data, can provide early intelligence into most-likely outcomes during policymaker discussions, and can even provide pharmaceutical companies with evidence to shape their applications in order to achieve a more favourable outcome. Taking this approach could save time and money for all stakeholders and achieve faster effective healthcare for the patients who need it.
Thanks to the unique technology in CREATION PinpointⓇ, which tracks the perspectives of nearly 3M healthcare professionals worldwide through their online conversations on public and private social media, CREATION.co is able to provide accurate analysis of emerging physician views on pre-launch drugs. In fact, we have seen how physicians may be significantly shaping peer perception of new medicines through their online conversations, well before a pharmaceutical company has gained authorisation to market the product.
FDA’s role in US market access
In the US, marketing authorization – that is, permission to market a medicine – is granted by the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration). Gaining FDA approval is a key milestone in a drug’s market access journey and, because of the size of the healthcare market in the US, can have a major impact on a product’s global success.
The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) evaluates drugs before approving them to be sold in the US, making a decision based upon whether it considers that a drug’s health benefits outweigh its known risks. Health benefits may include the product’s uniqueness as a treatment for a particular disease indication.
Following a new drug application by a pharmaceutical company, a CDER team of physicians, statisticians, chemists, pharmacologists, and other scientists reviews the application and considers the company’s data and proposed drug labelling.
NICE’s role in UK medicines market access
In England, once a medicine has received marketing authorisation, it could be prescribed by a doctor and in some cases may be paid for at the discretion of local CCG policy, however nationwide NHS spending policy is decided upon by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).
In its own words, NICE uses “the best available evidence to develop recommendations that guide decisions in health, public health and social care”. NICE’s recommendations guide access to medicines in England and Wales, so the organisation’s decisions have a direct impact on whether or not medicines are made available, and funded on the NHS, to the majority of patients in the UK.
NICE makes recommendations using independent committees of people selected for their knowledge and experience from the front lines of healthcare provision, and also informed by public consultation. Recommendations are made based on evidence and anticipated benefits, aiming to ensure the best value for money for an expected outcome, which is sometimes referred to as cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained.
How to use HCP insights to inform market access plans
Our work with pharma launch teams provides them with real-world perspectives shared between HCPs before the product is made available. Here are two examples of where we have seen HCP insights inform market access plans:
Case study: demonstrating unmet need
Our client, a top-3 pharmaceutical company, was planning for the future launch of a new class of drug that would bring positive disruption to an established therapy area.
Using CREATION PinpointⓇ, we studied 39,000 HCP posts from 8,000 HCPs on public and HCP-only social media channels, in five markets across a 12 month period.
We developed unique HCP insights regarding the burden and impact of disease, identified Digital Opinion Leaders and analysed HCP digital behaviours in the therapy area.
Using our insights, the client was able to:
- Use evidence from online HCP conversations to ‘tell the story’ of unmet burden of disease in market access negotiations.
- Align product positioning with HCP perception of key differentiators.
- Leverage the influence of HCP Digital Opinion Leaders concerned with burden of disease.
Case study: early warnings of physician concerns
Our client, a top-10 pharmaceutical company, was planning for the launch of a novel neuroscience product in Europe, and asked us to develop insights that would inform the launch.
Using CREATION PinpointⓇ, we developed a picture of how HCPs in the therapy area felt about patient needs, how they perceived current products, and what they thought about our client’s data.
We identified some concerns among HCPs about the data and also about the administration of the product. Our research also revealed some misunderstandings among HCPs about how the product’s indication was defined.
We facilitated a series of workshops with our client’s teams across the region, using evidence from our research to develop a vision for meaningful messaging that would address HCPs’ concerns and also support a roadmap to an effective launch.
We also advised on digital channels for engaging HCPs and identified HCP Digital Opinion Leaders who could support the development of the environment for future market access activities.
Strategic recommendations for market access with CREATION Pinpoint HCP insights
With CREATION.co’s insights-led health strategy tool, CREATION Pinpoint, you can empower your market access strategy with intelligence from HCPs on the front lines. Throughout your launch planning, we’ll help you ask, answer, and act upon the questions that matter, such as:
Develop evidence:
- How do HCPs perceive the product’s efficacy?
- How do HCPs perceive safety?
- How do HCPs perceive the unmet need for your product?
Act on learnings:
- Are there aspects of your product’s data that need further explanation?
- Are there HCPs who are skeptical, who need support or education?
- Are there certain HCPs leading the conversation about unmet need, who are influencing the views of others?
Put your new evidence to work:
- Did you discover new advocates among HCPs, who could support your messaging?
- Is there evidence that HCPs prefer your data over existing products?
- If you discovered evidence of unmet need, could this support your application?
Plan for engagement:
- Who do you need to engage?
- What channels; publications; interests; PAGs; other organisations?
- Digital or human interaction? Omnichannel? Will you equip MSLs?
Having discussed two examples here the questions to ask is ‘are there common indicators from the conversations of HCPs that would suggest a market access decision’? This is something we are currently researching and we will publish our findings soon!
CREATION.co work with many global healthcare providers to address the challenges with market access planning and strategy, if you would like further information, please get in touch.
