Case Studies

Case Study 1: Market Access Tools

• A newly created market access department within in a midsize pharmaceutical company asked us to develop materials to communicate the value proposition for their products and, at the same time, to help them convince their organisation of the advantages of a co-ordinated worldwide market access strategy.

  We began by creating a global value dossier for a key established product. By incorporating the results of a bespoke questionnaire sent to affiliates and integrating all relevant clinical and economic evidence identified through extensive literature searches, the value dossier responded to the needs and challenges of teams in different countries, provided a central point of reference for all users and ensured the coherent and consistent communication of value messages about the product. All references were hyperlinked into the value dossier and provided on a separate CD for easy internal distribution.

  Understanding the market access department's need to explain an unfamiliar tool to senior management and other colleagues, we responded rapidly to a need that arose for accompanying training slides to convey concisely the value dossier's methodology, content and practical purpose. Conscious of the need for market access activities to be conducted cost-effectively, we provided these additional materials free of charge.

  The value dossier met with a universally positive reception across the organisation and the market access team gained approval at board level for us to develop value dossiers for two other established products. The value dossiers will be used to generate objection handling documents, local market access plans and sales force training materials. Once validated for approved products, further value dossiers were then commissioned for therapies in the final stages of clinical development.

Case Study 2: NICE Response

• We were approached by the global market access division of a large pharmaceutical company requiring urgent assistance in drafting their reponse to a Technology Assessment Review (TAR) issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK.

  The report issued recommendations that misrepresented their product's clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness and would have been highly damaging to market access success globally if adopted in NICE's final guidance. The NICE consultation and review process provided an opportunity for the pharmaceutical company to submit a response to the TAR .

  As we had not been involved in the original NICE submission and tight deadlines are imposed during the consultation phase, we had to assimilate and evaluate in a matter of days an unfamiliar report of over 500 pages issued by the academic group commissioned by NICE. This report was highly complex because our client's product had been assessed alongside a number of others in the same therapeutic area. Our detailed analysis of the clinical and economic data presented in the TAR helped to identify the inappropriate interpretation of the clinical evidence by the academic group as well as serious flaws in their approach to the economic model.

  Drawing on these findings, we agreed the strategy for the response in close collaboration with our client's market access team. We then swiftly drafted a targeted and persuasive, yet respectful, document for submission to NICE, which successfully influenced their decision-making process: the evaluation in the original version of the TAR , stating that our client's product should not be considered cost effective, was reversed in the final NICE guidance where it is now recommended for use in a key patient subgroup throughout England's National Health Service.

Case Study 3: International Medical Education Event

• A major pharmaceutical company asked us to develop all of the scientific content and handle some key project management components for a large medical education event that they were sponsoring.

  The congress was intended to showcase their expertise in a therapeutic area where their product portfolio is particularly strong.

  After helping to develop the congress programme, we worked closely with the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in Europe and the US to create, edit and revise their presentations in the months leading up to the congress. Part of our role was to ensure the objective and impartial presentation of data on all products discussed, including those of our client, such that the meeting was in line with continuing medical education (CME) requirements. This helped to give the congress educational credibility and so secure attendance by an international group of over 400 practising clinicians.

  Three members of our project team travelled to the congress venue early to put final preparations in place with our client's medical education team. During the congress itself our technical ability, the relationship of trust we had already built with the KOLs and their confidence in our scientific understanding enabled us to make accurate last-minute changes to their presentation slides on request.

  This first congress, which represented a major investment for our client, was judged by senior management to have been a major success and it has now become an annual event.