Blueprint for Excellence: A Best Practice Guide for Achieving Rapid Sales Uptake of New Pharmaceuticals

By Adam Gusman, Best Practices, LLC

Since Celebrex was launched in late January, 1999—less than three months ago—physicians have written over 1.5 million prescriptions for this anti-arthritis medication, making it perhaps the most successful product launch in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. The vigorous sales uptake can be attributed not only to an outstanding product profile, but also to the efficient launch executed by manufacturer G.D. Searle and co-promotion partner Pfizer.

Thanks to the rapid success of recent blockbusters such as Celebrex and the cholesterol reducer Lipitor (Warner-Lambert), leading pharmaceutical companies are now keenly aware that blockbuster success requires more than clinical development excellence—it demands successful marketing planning, beginning as early as the pre-clinical stage, and an integrated approach to implementation.

"Product pipeline is no longer the only indicator of a pharmaceutical company's future growth potential," said Chris Bogan, CEO of Best Practices LLC, a Chapel Hill, NC-based research firm. "Now Wall Street tries to determine whether a company can replicate the rapid sales uptake that blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor and Celebrex have shown. Savvy analysts and shareholders want to know if a company can successfully launch its products to optimize their full economic potential. Sales uptake power hitters are capturing hundreds of millions—even several billion—dollars of additional value in their product lifetimes."

The Global Marketing Launch Report, recently published by Best Practices LLC, identifies winning strategies, practices and investment patterns employed by 11 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies in high-performing global product launches. Companies with an integrated global marketing launch process describe a chain of success: they plan and prioritize key marketing activities early, commit sufficient resources consistently to support activities critical to the product's market growth, and then they structure global marketing organizations to effectively leverage resources and align execution with strategy.

Through a comprehensive benchmarking survey and extensive interviews with pharmaceutical executives, Best Practices, LLC identified the top five key drivers of new product success:

• Consistently allocate sufficient resources to support global launch and rapid sales uptake of high-potential drugs.
• Manage thought leader development programs as an integrated, multi-phase process to shape clinical development and market acceptance.
• Integrate marketing strategy, structure, resources and planning to achieve rapid sales uptake.
• Build and sustain sales force enthusiasm through an uncapped and well-defined compensation system.
• Employ innovative market research to enhance product positioning and brand development.

The report includes survey data analysis, lessons learned, best practices, and key trends identified in executive interviews. Findings are arranged according to six critical launch areas: global strategy and structure, sales force support, market research, marketing activities, thought leader development, and life cycle management. Benchmark partner companies consistently ranked thought leader development, for example, as one of the highest-impact launch activities. Obtaining the support of influential physicians has always been important, but pharmaceutical companies are now conceptualizing thought leader development as a highly integrated process.

The most sophisticated thought leader management systems identify several segments of top physicians according to their potential influence in shaping clinical development, market positioning, branding, or product acceptance. Companies seek to tailor their efforts, activities, and relationship investments to match the value of each thought leader segment and to reflect the roles of each segment at different points in time. Such an integrated approach ensures that companies optimize their resources and their effectiveness in building relationships with the most influential thought leaders.

Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that provides clients with access and intelligence for achieving world-class excellence through its study of the best business practices, operating tactics, and winning strategies of excellent companies.

For more information: David Wang, Senior Associate, Best Practices, LLC, 6320 Quadrangle Drive Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, Tel: 919-403-0251, Ext. 233. Fax: 919-403-0144. Email: dwang@best-in-class.com.