Pharma Launch Optimization – Start Here
Even as technology advances elements of the drug development process, many aspects of pharma launches remain unchanged, with delays and disruptions continuing to be the norm. Launch plans are often significantly impacted if clinical trials encounter setbacks at any stage—from pre-trial through approval.
To mitigate these risks, trial sponsors are taking proactive steps to optimize study protocols, improve patient recruitment and retention, and ensure diverse and appropriate patient pools. As a result, the framework for pharma and medical affairs launch excellence is evolving, requiring new strategies and tools to navigate the complexities of modern product launches.
Despite these efforts, launch disruptions remain a persistent challenge. Many studies still experience unexpected delays, regulatory hurdles, and market access challenges that can derail timelines and impact commercial success:
We analyzed 86 launches scheduled for 2018 onward with expected sales in excess of $300 million. We found that between February and August 2020, all of these launches were disrupted through delays, lost revenues, or both.
– McKinsey
The McKinsey findings highlight that launch disruptions have long been a reality for pharmaceutical companies, regardless of external crises. Pharma teams must anticipate and adapt to these challenges by implementing a launch strategy that is agile, data-driven, and continuously informed by real-time insights.
So how can pharma companies achieve launch excellence in this evolving landscape? And what role does insights management technology play in supporting launch strategy?
According to reporting from Bain & Company, pharma organizations that pull off successful launches do these three things:
- Differentiate their therapy with messaging, post-launch data, and patient services
- Build customer advocacy by providing a good consumer experience
- View a drug launch as a “micro-battle” and solicit ongoing feedback from field teams
Pre-launch
Before launch, drug companies need a comprehensive understanding of their market, stakeholders, and competitive landscape. Medical affairs and commercial teams must work together to gather insights about patients, caregivers, advocacy groups, frontline HCPs, researchers, competitors, and the emerging scientific narrative around the disease their new therapy will treat. Here’s a breakdown of key pre-launch activities:
Understanding Disease Communities
Medical affairs teams must deeply understand the disease community and treatment landscape to achieve pharma launch excellence.
By using network analytics, teams can gain visibility into the relationships and key influencers within a disease community—extending beyond traditional publication metrics. These insights help identify the most trusted voices among HCPs, patient advocates, and researchers, ensuring that pharma teams engage with the right stakeholders to build credibility and advocacy.
Publication Planning and Creation
Publications are essential for educating stakeholders and shaping the scientific narrative around new therapies. However, publication planning and content development are often time-consuming and resource-intensive.
By using collaborative digital tools, pharma teams can streamline publication development, enabling real-time co-authoring, review, and editing. This reduces the number of drafts required, eliminates inefficiencies from email-based collaboration, and allows teams to produce high-quality, impactful publications on a faster timeline—supporting both scientific engagement and market education.
MSL Training and Support
Medical science liaisons (MSLs) play a critical role in launch success by serving as the primary link between pharma teams and KOLs, attending medical conferences, and disseminating clinical information.
To ensure MSLs are fully prepared for launch, pharma teams must invest in comprehensive training and ongoing support. Asynchronous virtual engagement provides an effective way to train global MSL teams efficiently, regardless of location or time zone. Additionally, live, in-conversation translation ensures that MSLs across territories can fully engage in discussions and training sessions in their native language, improving knowledge retention and alignment.
Treatment and Competitor Activity
A thorough understanding of the treatment landscape and competitive environment is essential for launch planning. To refine their go-to-marketing approach, medical affairs teams must track market trends, competitive positioning, and emerging therapeutic developments.
Social listening tools provide valuable insights into real-time discussions among HCPs, patients, and payers—revealing key concerns, challenges, and market perceptions. By analyzing this data, pharma teams can better anticipate market needs, refine messaging, and proactively address potential barriers to adoption.
At launch
Missing launch targets is not uncommon—many manufacturers in recent years have failed to meet launch expectations for a significant portion of their products. Additionally, the average revenue per drug has declined, and this trend is expected to continue:
Average peak sales forecasts for late-stage pipeline assets have declined by more than 50% since 2010. The declining average peak sales and intense competition limit the opportunity to maximize returns from new launches.
– Deloitte
To increase their chances of launch success, medical affairs and commercial teams must work together to optimize engagement, refine messaging, and ensure that real-time insights and intelligence inform decision-making.
MSL deployment: insight and activity tracking
Once MSLs are deployed, medical affairs teams must capture insights from the field and track key engagement activities. However, with large-scale launches, extracting value from numerous field team reports can be overwhelming, often leading to missed insights.
By leveraging advanced analytics, AI, and natural language processing, pharma teams can efficiently analyze HCP interactions, track engagement trends, and assess sentiment around key topics. Sentiment analysis helps teams understand not just what HCPs are saying, but why and how they are saying it—allowing for data-driven adjustments to launch strategies.
Medical congress excellence
Medical congresses are critical touchpoints for launch visibility, KOL engagement, and real-time market intelligence. Pharma teams can enhance their congress strategies by implementing agile, virtual collaboration methods that allow key stakeholders to share findings, track discussions, and adjust messaging in real time.
Virtual congress huddles enable team members to:
- Share insights from one-on-one HCP interactions and speaker sessions.
- Coordinate across teams in real time to refine messaging and engagement strategies.
- Leverage social listening to monitor conversations, identify emerging KOLs, and track industry sentiment.
Congress participation is no longer just about attendance—it’s about capturing and applying insights that can directly impact launch success.
In today’s launch landscape, traditional models are vulnerable to disruption. Pharma companies must embrace technology, real-time insights, and cross-functional collaboration to navigate challenges and achieve launch excellence.
Launching new products is a golden opportunity to try out new techniques and gauge their impact before rolling them out more widely. Given the uncertainties triggered by the pandemic and the radical changes in physicians’ preferences and behaviors, replicating successful launch strategies from the past is no longer a safe option.
– McKinsey
Is your team equipped with the insights needed for a successful launch? Book a demo to discover how life science companies are closing the insight gap and driving smarter, more effective product launches.
