The Guide to Pharma Launch Excellence Success

Prescient’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Stephanie Hall, has compiled a 7-Part Launch Leaders’ how-to guide, which you can read below. The Launch Leaders’ guide explores concepts from whether to delay or not delay a pharmaceutical product launch, what the launch environment will look like in the next ‘normal’ in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, to how launch excellence leaders innovate, and what pharma product launch leaders must be measuring throughout different phases in their launch process activities.

If you would like to gain an understanding of what it means to be a successful pharmaceutical product launch leader in today’s economic climate and the impact on the healthcare professionals’ marketing industry, keep reading!

PART 1 – TO DELAY OR NOT TO DELAY THE LAUNCH – ‘THAT IS THE QUESTION’ NOWADAYS

Having had the privilege of working on a number of UK, European and global product launches over the years in different capacities, I had thought about starting this series with an examination of what makes a launch excellent or, at least, jolly good news for patients, prescribers and the pharmaceutical industry. However, in light of COVID-19, we have seen an unimaginable series of events impacting the planning and implementation of new product launches: delays in clinical trial recruitment, transfer of field-based medical, access and sales teams into virtual working settings, delays in regulatory approval timings, cancellation or postponement of major congresses and much more.

And at this time, I have never felt prouder to work in this life sciences industry, where we are researching, developing, testing, collaborating, and doing so much more to find solutions to the global coronavirus pandemic, as well as to many other rare and not-so-rare diseases.

Working across the industry with different teams and in different therapy areas, there are so many questions to address:

• How will my launch timelines be impacted?
• How will the post-COVID-19 situation impact physicians, payers, and patients’ attitudes, behaviours, and priorities?
• How do I move my engagement and promotional mix to more virtual / digital activities?
• How do I plan my new product launch across countries and functions in the virtual environment?
• What will the impact be on launch uptake in the short and medium term?

PART 2 – WHAT DOES THE LAUNCH ENVIRONMENT LOOK LIKE IN THE ‘NEXT NORMAL’?

If you are leading or working on a launch – whether it’s a new product indication, formulation or a completely new product molecule and brand – you may be thinking carefully about what you are able to do both pre-launch and post-launch as the months progress.

It has never been more important to create different launch scenarios with supporting strategies and tactics. We have talked a lot about ‘agility’, but now is the time to truly implement this. As a specialist in pharma / biotech launch excellence, I feel so proud to be working at the forefront of the industry’s new medicines, but I appreciate that it is a super tough environment to launch into.

Some companies are moving forward boldly with their launches, using a strong digital engagement strategy – usually with heavy early investment across key stakeholder groups. Some are delaying or are being delayed from a clinical trial, regulatory, access or internal operational perspective.

Taking a look at what’s been happening in our industry over recent weeks and months, here are some encouraging reports and pieces of analysis from across our market:

• Digital channels have seen a massive boost in 1:1 interactions, group sessions, and, of course, email (with an increase of 482% according to Veeva), website, webinars, and much more – our IT teams have been busy! But other reports show that healthcare professionals’ satisfaction with some of these channels is low.
• Face-to-face interactions are making a comeback (after live events decreased by 41%, according to Veeva), but this is highly dependent on which country you are working in and, of course, may change with any future second wave of COVID-19.

PART 3 – WHAT MAKES A GREAT LAUNCH LEADER AND LAUNCH TEAM?

In the pharmaceutical industry, we have spent much time building launch excellence frameworks, processes, and tools to help bring some structure, rigour, and coordination to the complex and risky process of launching a new drug globally. Successful launches are critical to shaping the market, and in this part, I’d like to focus on the launch leader and the launch team—the people who drive the thinking, strategies, planning, and execution of the launch over a number of years.

Having launched a number of medicines at different companies, I reflect that my launch roles were among the most challenging, exciting, frustrating, exhausting, and exhilarating moments of my career! Whether it was receiving a regulatory ‘no’ after a year of planning a respiratory launch in the UK or a European-wide successful cardiology launch that exceeded everyone’s expectations, each experience underscored the importance of effective launch planning and preparation for a new drug.

As a launch leader and now a consultant to launch teams and leaders, I have come to the conclusion that there is a distinct set of skills and behaviours that launch leaders and teams need to be successful. Building these skills and practising these behaviours can really make the difference between commercial success and failure. This, in turn, affects how the launch team feels, works, and engages with important external stakeholders within the pharma market.

I’m often asked about the one key skill that a launch leader must have, and I am quick to reply that there really isn’t one. There is a whole range of skills a launch leader must have, and this ideal blend can vary across the pre-launch period and among companies, markets, and therapy areas.

This lack of a nice ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to launch is so important to embrace – a successful launch makes us think carefully about the specific blend of skills, processes, and strategies we need.

Understanding your current launch capability is also key to a successful launch. This is why Prescient has developed a launch excellence tool called LExLevel Pulse. After completing a short self-assessment, you will receive a bespoke report that outlines your overall launch readiness and highlights key areas for improvement in the team’s activities.

From my research over the years with senior launch leaders across the pharma industry, a few key skills have emerged:

1. Attracting, motivating and developing cross-functional launch team members – getting the right blend of personalities, experience, values and commitment from your team is generally cited as the most important of launch leader skills
2. Strategic decision making and alignment – the ability to create a compelling launch excellence strategy adapted to the local market, therapy area, competitive context and external environment, ensuring critical success factors for the launch are identified, and the pharmaceutical market dynamics are considered
3. Effective engagement with external and internal stakeholders – the ability to build credible, sustainable relationships with scientific thought leaders, pricing and access stakeholders, regulators, and patient group leaders, as well as key internal stakeholders, is crucial in a successful pharmaceutical launch. This ensures that key decisions are made and the necessary resources are in place
4. There are also a host of other skills related to planning, project management, tracking launch readiness, anticipating future issues and monitoring, that speak to the discipline needed to lead an effective launch
5. Technical skills are also important, of course: a deep understanding of the science, experience in the therapy area, and an ability to create a strong operational launch plan

PART 4 – PRAISING THE MEDICAL TEAM FOR AN EXCELLENT LAUNCH 

Finding great medics to work on a launch team is a tough challenge, but definitely worth the effort

In this part, I’d like to recognise a group of wonderful people who have become more and more important in guiding and delivering a successful launch. It’s the medical team!

In recent years, the number and range of medical roles have increased significantly, while other, more traditional sales or commercial roles have declined. There are now medical roles covering medical affairs, medical information, scientific communications, R&D, clinical trials, compliance, scientific advice, medical science liaison, and a number of new hybrid roles to manage relationships with thought leaders, patient groups, national payer and guideline bodies, and to support large multichannel engagement campaign content. In the context of launch, medical teams are pivotal to early-stage planning and market research, shaping new product strategies for a new drug at both global and local levels.

In my experience of working on launch teams, I’ve been guided and inspired by medical colleagues who can build strong relationships with scientific and clinical thought leaders, analyse and interpret complex clinical trial results, and serve as true strategic partners for critical decisions about the target patient, product differentiation, and understanding how physicians think and behave in specific therapy areas. Their involvement is crucial for gathering relevant insights during market research that informs launch planning and execution.

Finding great medics to work on a launch team is a tough challenge. It’s a big jump for a physician to move from clinical practice into the pharma industry, and there is often a lack of clear role descriptions, defined competencies, onboarding, and training in the many organisational processes relating to launch. Some medics struggle with the move to a corporate environment with a whole host of new processes – internal communication, reporting, financial, planning, compliance, management review, readiness, cross-functional brand team – that are involved in a pharma / biotech launch. Some industry medics can be left bewildered, unsupported, and unhappy without the right support, guidance, and encouragement from their team leaders.

When building a launch team, it’s so important to define the key roles needed, their technical skills, as well as the softer skills needed, and to consider the personalities and fit of the individuals. When forming a launch team, I like to take the team away for a day or so and invest time in some team building, personality profiling, and then map out the team’s vision for success for the launch and ways of working.

It’s so important that the medical roles are clearly defined at each phase of the launch and that the medics and the rest of the cross-functional brand team are all on the same page. Otherwise, this can lead to disconnects, missed deadlines, grumpiness, stress, and worse within a launch team. A few stories and anecdotes come to mind as I write this…

When planning a global launch, I’ve seen some great industry practice from the medical leadership in clearly defining the structure and roles of the medical function at a global and local level. This may vary depending on the company culture and processes, disease area / speciality, and launch archetype – a rare disease medical organisation will look very different from one in vaccines or cardiology. Other examples of industry medical excellence to support launch include:

• Creating medical competency frameworks for different medical roles and levels of seniority, with specific reference to launch excellence processes and tools / resources for core medical activities
• Defining the softer and leadership skills needed for key medical roles and providing these roles with development tools, training and coaching by senior medics with practical launch experience
• Creating training programmes to support medics with their capabilities in launch planning, strategy, creating a winning medical affairs launch plan, project management and reporting, working with agencies, innovation, multichannel engagement and industry trends in technology, market access, evidence generation, and even AI, data and analytics
• Setting up processes for medical teams across brands and launches, to share internal best practices and leverage external industry best practice.

Finding a true medical launch leader can have an enormous impact on the planning and ways of working of a launch team, as well as creating strong relationships with external experts and thought leaders to shape the launch strategy and investment in major programmes of evidence generation.

The best medics I remember from launch teams in recent years all have a strong focus on the launch team (vs the medical function), the treating physician and the target patient, and a sense of positivity and resilience even in the face of change or setbacks in the launch. They are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and help out, and can frequently be found right by the side of their commercial colleagues, a true leader in the launch team. Thank you, magnificent medical team!

PART 5 – HOW CAN LAUNCH LEADERS INNOVATE?

2020 and 2021 were tumultuous years on so many fronts and have spurred significant innovation across teams, functions, and disease areas as our industry moves into a new way of working in the ‘next normal’.

There are some wonderful examples of multi-brand, multi-country innovation across our industry as we strive to do things better and solve problems, with the ultimate goal of improving patients’ lives. In recent months, I have been doing a good deal of work with teams focused on how to innovate, evolve, and transform in different ways to successfully launch their medicines. It’s really thought-provoking and rewarding work!

So what do we mean by innovation? I like to think of three different types of innovation:

1. Incremental innovation – utilising existing technology, processes, and capabilities to deliver small stepwise improvements
2. Disruptive innovation – where a smaller company / player with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge incumbent businesses
3. Radical innovation – new industries, products, services or processes that are transformative

A launch leader will be best served to deliver an innovative launch with the right internal environment. In his book ‘Be Less Zombie’, Elvin Turner identifies that organisations which are highly innovative will have processes, capabilities, leadership, culture, and resourcing dedicated to supporting innovation.[1]

We could all do with being a bit ‘less zombie’ in our launches, but in practice, that’s easier said than carried out in reality. Tight timelines, low levels of resourcing, complicated external environments, changing product profiles, and complex internal stakeholders are just a few of the challenges that a launch leader has to navigate.

So which companies are winning at innovation in 2020? Forbes’ 2020 list of the most innovative companies includes Siemens, J&J, Bayer, and Novartis in its top 50. However, if we look at the other companies across tech, social media, devices, diagnostics, and more, many of the top 50 companies have a significant interest in healthcare.

So, if you’re a launch leader and thinking about how you can innovate across the different strategic elements of launch, I’d like to propose a ‘ten Ps’ framework (yes, Ps are well used in business practice). Consider the following ten Ps to give you some stimulus to identify two or three (but no more) areas to innovate across your launch: Price, Partnership, Physical Evidence, Patient, Place, People, Processes, Product, Personalisation, Promotion. Run a workshop with your cross-functional launch team and see where their collective creativity, expertise, and energy takes you!

I’m also asked other questions, such as ‘Are there truly innovative people and less innovative people?’ and ‘How do we build innovation skills within our launch team?’ Research into innovation highlights the five key skills of an innovator: associating, observing, experimenting, questioning, networking (The Innovators’ DNA, INSEAD). The recommendation in this great study on innovation is that we can all rehearse, hone, and use our innovation skills in our roles with a little discipline and effort.

So what does this mean in practice? If you’re a launch leader and keen to foster capabilities and a culture of innovation, there are lots of things you can do to enhance the quality of your initiatives:

1. Spend some time as a cross-functional launch team to reflect, plan and implement innovation initiatives
2. Track what the competition is doing to be innovative in your therapy area, category or sector
3. Create reward / recognition schemes for the innovators in your launch team
4. Plug into internal and external networks for practical sources of ideas on innovation
5. Give yourself some protected time to ‘be innovative’ – to think, plan, read, play around with an idea or problem
6. Hire great agencies and partners that offer new ideas and capabilities, and be careful not to shut down their innovative ideas

I’m so excited to see brand and launch teams across countries defining problems or pain points, devising solutions, and then testing / evaluating them. Whether you have a company innovation team or hub, retreat or hackathon – just go for it! Innovation is a core ingredient of launch excellence.

There are some great models, articles, and resources if you are inspired to be more innovative. My favourites are Frugal Innovation and ‘Be Less Zombie’.

[1] “Be less Zombie” Elvis Turner

Launching a new healthcare medicine, device, or service is one of the most exciting and rewarding things we can do. Our award-winning Pharmaceutical Marketing Launch Excellence platform can be customised to companies, brands, and markets and has been shown to correlate to superior launch performance. To find out how we can help provide you with the expertise for a successful launch, contact us below.