NEW YORK, N.Y. and LONDON, U.K. — Eularis today announced the release of a first-ever study on the ROI of named patient programmes (NPP), also known as compassionate use programs. The paper, “Implementing a pre-launch named patient programme – evidence of increased market share,” provides pharmaceutical companies with insight and mathematical justification into the cash market share and revenue impact of pre-launch NPPs on brands, while outlining the benefits and challenges that they create. NPPs provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a way to ethically provide pre-launch medicines available in countries outside of the approved markets.
Through these programmes, patients with a genuine unmet medical need are able to access the potentially live-saving medicines before those medicines are licensed and commercially available in their home country. By implementing an NPP, companies increase patient access to new treatment options and in turn create additional revenue opportunities.
While many companies have employed NPPs in an effort to manage patient access, maximize market share and optimize profits, until now, no studies have been conducted reporting on the efficacy of these programmes. In a market environment where an effective launch can result in success or failure of a pharmaceutical, evidence-based strategy is essential to launching and maintaining a successful product. The study reports on the positive ROI and increased launch market share that can be achieved by using NPP programmes pre-launch. The study used a control group of brands that had not used NPP, and matched these with brands that had, across multiple countries and therapeutic categories. The paper also reports on additional non-financial benefits such as product visibility and physician cultivation and relationship development.
“The pharmaceutical industry has already widely-adopted named patient programmes into many product launch strategies,” said the author of the paper, Dr. Andree K. Bates, president of Eularis. “To date, there has been limited data available on the actual frequency, usage and clinical success of these programmes, and their ultimate impact on a product launch. This study is the first to be able to quantify the positive revenue impact that these programmes wield.”
The paper (published in the Journal of Medical Marketing, September 2008 issue) also explains the regulatory and practical challenges of implementing NPPs across Europe, including regulatory constraints and inconsistent guidelines between countries. The paper addresses the difficulties that pharmaceuticals companies face by not being able to actively promote an NPP of an unlicensed pharmaceutical, which makes it difficult for patients and physicians to learn of NPPs.
Dr. Andree K. Bates, president of Eularis, will be speaking about NPPs at CBI’s Premier Forum on Pre-Approval Access for the Bio/Pharmaceutical Industry conference in Baltimore, MD in October 2008. Bates has gained wide recognition within the international pharmaceutical industry for her expertise in marketing return analysis and is speaking in Tokyo and Sydney in October on this topic also. In addition to this paper and other articles in peer-reviewed journals, she has also authored several must-have reports for pharmaceutical industry marketers, and several chapters in books on pharmaceutical analytics. To arrange an interview with Dr. Bates, please contact Catherine Allen at +1 617.779.1879 or via email at CAllen@Eularis.com.
To read the paper, “Implementing a pre-launch named patient programme – evidence of increased market share,” please visit: www.palgrave-journals.com/jmm/
About Eularis
Eularis provides sophisticated pharmaceutical analytics that provide data-driven insight into the financial impact of corporate and marketing decisions. Unlike traditional analytics approaches which are lengthy and whose reliance on historical or analogue data reduces their accuracy, Eularis’ proprietary 94.8 Analytics Process is based on the current market situation. This proven approach helps pharmaceutical marketing teams to quickly plan, measure, validate, and optimize their sales and marketing performance. Eularis offers pre-launch analytics, marketing mix modeling (both professional and consumer), portfolio optimization, sales force effectiveness, managed care analytics, and patient compliance solutions.
Co-headquartered in London and New York City, the company has developed significant experience in the global pharmaceutical market through client engagements with AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer and many others.
For more information about Eularis, visit http://www.eularis.com.
[tags]Eularis pharmaceutical analytics, pre-launch named patient programme, pharma increased market share, Dr Andree K Bates[/tags]
