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The Roadmap to Informed Healthcare
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Click below to receive our CrossRoads newsletter.
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Greetings!
Welcome to the July issue of CrossRoads, a regular newsletter from Pharmacist Partners. (Intro Allen as our newest advisory board member? Allen joins John Castellani and Harold Cohen as recent additions to the Pharmacist Partners advisory board.)
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Troubling Trends: Unsuccessful Product Launches:
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 According to IMS, less than 1% of new brands excel in today's pharmaceutical environment. Recent failures such as Purdue's Intermezzo® and AZ's Brilinta® have brought more attention to formulary support, physician awareness, and pharmacist involvement.
Late in 2012 Fierce Pharma compiled a list of the top 10 launch failures. This troubling trend of failures is projected to continue due to a myriad of factors, most of which are avoidable. When payers balk or sales plans fizzle, some of the most promising supposed blockbusters wind up as bitter disappointment.
Here are just four:  - Sanofi's, Multaq® & Zaltrap®,
- K-V's, Makena®, and
- Somaxon's, Silenor®.
Below we analyze one of the more recent failures, Intermezzo®.
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Case Study: Intermezzo/Purdue Launch and re-launch post-mortem
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 Intermezzo (a highly effective product and fills a unique niche for middle of the night insomnia) was launched by Purdue in April 2012. Sales in 2012 were disappointing, but Purdue stepped up in major way to re-launch the product late last year with a direct to consumer advertising campaign and the decision to use their 500+ analgesic sales force (vs. one of the CSO's) to market the product. Analyst Larry Smith (Smith on Stocks) thought that this would reinvigorate the product. There were a number of things that were misjudged: - It has been difficult to make physicians and patients aware that middle of the night awakening was a disease condition and had a new effective therapy.
- Critical distinctions between Intermezzo and Ambien were not made clear to physicians and patients
- Managed care barriers were much more difficult to surmount; Intermezzo was placed on tier 3 ($45 to $50 co-pays).
- Purdue tried couponing to reduce the co-pay to $15, but even though Intermezzo is a superior product, it couldn't dislodge generic Ambien, which costs pennies per dose.
Prescriptions initially picked up with the DTC campaign and increased sales rep promotion. However, they have recently flattened. Larry says "It is obvious that the launch has failed."
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MANAGED CARE POSITION PAPER:
Sneak Preview
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Because chronic conditions are responsible for approximately 75% of our annual healthcare cost,
particular attention needs to be paid to
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Jody Stern, R.Ph., Advisor Pharmacist Partners, Former Director, Medicare Clinical Programs and Formulary Implementation at Aetna
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the appropriate prescribing, utilization and patient adherence to drugs for the treatment of chronic conditions, such
as diabetes, COPD and asthma, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain management and neurologic and
psychiatric conditions.
Identifying patients who are contributing to this cost through non-adherence is only part of the problem. It is crucial that case managers and pharmacists help these patients in the comprehensive management of their chronic disease states to contain medical costs and improve quality and satisfaction levels.
It has been demonstrated, in a number of studies, that utilization of pharmacist services to directly interact with and counsel patients on proper and compliant use of medications has provided measurable benefits on clinical, financial and patient satisfaction scores.
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"Peer-to-Peer" Points of Interest
Allen Dunehew
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Quote re Product Launches, or Formulary support, etc. How a CKO such as pharmacist partners can assist companies during the vital launch stage ???
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Our guiding principle is in line with our clients - to improve patient health.
Launching a new pharmaceutical product is a major undertaking. As our biopharmaceutical clients balance R&D activities and growing competition, there is little room for error when launching new drugs. One of the most critical factors impacting the success or failure of a new product launch is the effectiveness of the sales team. If they are not properly supported, the success of the launch can be compromised significantly. Therefore, the sales efforts must be complemented with education and advocacy. As such an effective launch plan must balance the value of all stakeholders, namely those that will drive utilization. Traditional sales efforts focus on script volume however non-traditional activities such as those provided by Pharmacist Partners are devised to improve product awareness, literacy and adherence. Any level of disregard for a single practitioner or element of a launch plan will ultimately undermine the potential success of a product.
Sincerely,
David
David Perry, CEO
Pharmacist Partners LLC
1-855-742-7611 |
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