Being able to clearly articulate to both physicians and patients ‘who is’ and ‘who is not’ the optimal candidate for your drug is probably the single most important task a Brand Team must execute in the days following FDA approval. In order to accomplish this, your marketing efforts to clearly identify and articulate the patient-types best suited for your drug must start early.
Unfortunately, inflated sales forecasts and launch expectations developed during the pre-launch phase often push Brand Teams to cast the net as wide as possible. The resistance to focus during pre-launch often leads to quotes from physician and patient launch research like the following:
“I’m waiting for the right candidate in my practice” (MD)
“I’m not sure this product is right for the type of [insert disease] I have.” (MD)
“It’s not clear to me that I would benefit from this treatment.” (Patient)
Patient identification efforts need to credibly address the key questions that both audiences have with regard to your product.
So how early should you start your ‘patient identification’ efforts? At ROF, we start our clients on that course very early with our unique positioning process that forces a thorough examination of use- and user-based positioning options that bring patient identification and specific prescribing situations to the forefront.
With your launch readiness review (LRR) coming up, let us help you get out in front of the key question – Who is the ideal candidate for your drug?
