The importance of proper patient identification at launch cannot be overstated. The feedback from the initial patients prescribed your product is one of the most important factors in determining how physicians perceive its utility vs. the competition. Multiply this by all your target physicians, and these initial experiences have a huge impact on your initial launch curve and ultimately launch success. While patient experiences may be channeled through nurses, other healthcare professionals or even office staff, they always finds their way back to the physician. We consider these invisible product ‘details’ to be among the most important initial drivers or barriers to physician prescribing at launch, and they take a couple of forms.
- Objective Evidence – feedback from the patient’s body through assessment and diagnostics that demonstrate the product’s real-world efficacy, safety, and tolerability
- Subjective evidence – patient articulation of how they are feeling physically and emotionally in those first few weeks or months on the medication
The objective and subjective feedback loop of those initial five to ten scripts frequently solidifies a positioning for your brand in the mind of your targeted prescriber. Proper patient selection may dictate whether the positioning solidified is the one you desire or one that simply fits the physician’s experiences. At approval, it’s important for marketers to clearly communicate who is best for your product and who is not. Be honest. Leaving a physician to choose those first patients on their own can have a serious consequences. Early prescribers naturally gravitate to using any new product in areas of highest unmet need, which usually means the sickest, most heavily pre-treated patients. These are most likely not the patients represented in your pivotal trial(s).
To ensure your brand experiences the invisible detail as a driver and not a barrier, start with focused positioning and messaging that clearly communicates the best patients for your brand. By acquiring the ideal patients at the outset, you can ensure that the true value of your brand will be demonstrated in real world patients and practices, moving it beyond positioning and messaging to physician perception.
