Breakthrough Access & Engagement in a Saturated Oncology Market
Introduction
The advent of personalized medicine has ushered in a new era of hope for patients battling cancer. The promise of tailoring treatments to an individual’s unique genetic makeup holds immense potential; however, this often remains unrealized due to a series of challenges that pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers (HCPs) face in integrating predictive biomarker testing into clinical care.
At the heart of this issue lies the fact that many patients who could benefit significantly from personalized treatments are falling through the cracks of the precision oncology pathway. The reasons behind this unfortunate trend are multifaceted and include operational inefficiencies, a limited understanding of biomarker strategies, inappropriate utilization of testing results, and access barriers. These hurdles collectively contribute to a substantial gap in the delivery of personalized cancer care.
One study revealed that approximately 64% of potentially eligible patients are not benefiting from precision oncology therapies, a disheartening statistic that illustrates the magnitude of the challenge at hand.
The fact that many eligible patients are missing out on the benefits of personalized treatments is not merely a clinical issue but also a business challenge, as it affects the reach and market share of pharmaceutical (pharma) manufacturers in the precision oncology field.
Business Challenges in a Companion Diagnostic Launch
The realization that the promise of personalized medicine remains unfulfilled for the majority of eligible patients is a call to action that many manufacturers are answering. At least 12 high-leverage precision medicine (PM) approvals are expected in 2024-2025.
Though the momentum is inspiring, the rapid pace of new oncology product approvals presents a saturated PM oncology landscape.
Here are the most common barriers pharma should expect to face when integrating predictive biomarker testing into clinical care:
Access Barriers
One of the significant business challenges in personalized cancer medicine is ensuring that patients have access to the necessary diagnostic tests and treatments. This entails navigating a complex web of healthcare systems, insurance providers, and reimbursement policies. Pharma must invest in strategies to streamline this process and ensure their treatments reach the intended patients.
Share of Voice
In a crowded pharma landscape, gaining a share of voice is crucial. Building awareness among HCPs, payers, and patients about the benefits of personalized cancer medicine is a challenge that requires strategic marketing and educational efforts. Establishing a strong presence in the medical community is vital to overcoming the inertia of traditional treatment approaches.
A fundamental step in increasing your share of voice is identifying the key stakeholders in the personalized cancer medicine landscape. This includes oncologists, pathologists, genetic counselors, patient advocacy groups, and payers. A field medical outsourcing partner with expertise in this field can help you pinpoint these crucial players.
Quality Message Delivery in the Field
A significant roadblock in this journey is the lack of integration between pharma’s medical communications and field medical and commercial teams. The consequence of this disconnect is that their messages often lack alignment and consistency. To overcome this issue, manufacturers must prioritize the seamless flow of messaging from their medical communications team to their field teams, ensuring that it is ready and applicable for immediate use.
The key to achieving this cohesion lies in transitioning from multichannel messaging to a more adaptable, multimodal approach. Multichannel communication is about utilizing multiple platforms or channels for content distribution, while multimodal communication focuses on presenting information in various formats to enhance comprehension and engagement, allowing for pharma’s field teams, and ultimately, pharma’s customers, to have their questions answered on their own time.
Undertrained Medical & Commercial Field Teams
Well-trained teams can effectively communicate the benefits of predictive biomarker testing and related treatments to HCPs and patients, thus driving adoption. They can also better address questions and concerns, fostering trust and confidence in the medical community. Additionally, a highly knowledgeable team is more likely to navigate the complex regulatory and compliance landscape effectively, reducing the risk of legal and ethical challenges. Overall, the investment in education and launch preparedness not only overcomes a common barrier but also positions companies for success in a competitive market, ultimately leading to better patient care and outcomes. Outsourcing to experts in this field accelerates learning and the change necessary to service PM programs, as traditional pharmaceutical organizations are not experienced in training teams on aligning a therapeutic with a diagnostic.
Multidisciplinary Processes
Effective decision-making in PM treatments relies on seamless communication and collaboration among various specialists, including oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, and more. They need to work together to identify suitable patients for PM therapies. However, a breakdown in this communication can occur when pharma fails to provide laboratories with clear, operationalized instructions for conducting tests, including specific equipment and inclusion/exclusion criteria. This lack of guidance can result in laboratories delivering results that do not meet the needs of oncologists, who require timely, accurate, and directed biomarker information to make informed treatment decisions.
To overcome this challenge, pharma companies must establish clear, standardized protocols and guidelines for laboratories, ensuring that the entire multidisciplinary team is aligned and well informed about the required biomarker data, thus facilitating better decision-making in PM treatments. Before writing protocols and guidelines, pharma companies must take the time to deeply understand their intended audience, the laboratory, as a unique entity with unique challenges. This understanding is crucial because their messaging needs to acknowledge the challenges laboratories face in implementing new protocols to serve patients, not just to serve a therapeutic.
Though we’ve summarized some of the most common barriers in the current landscape, it’s important to acknowledge that as the field of personalized medicine evolves, new challenges are likely to emerge. The power to overcome these existing and future barriers lies in unlocking the potential of proprietary networks.
Tapping into proprietary stakeholder networks offers a comprehensive approach, ensuring that your message reaches and resonates with key stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem, ultimately facilitating the adoption of personalized medicine and enhancing patient care and outcomes.
Overcoming Barriers by Unlocking the Power of Proprietary, Activated, and Engaged Oncology Networks
One size does not fit all in pharmaceutical marketing. Crafting customized print and digital materials tailored to specific audiences, such as patients, caregivers, and HCPs, ensures that your message hits home. But it’s not just about being heard; it’s about being understood, trusted, and valued by the stakeholders who matter most.
These are the top issues that we’ve helped pharma address through our proprietary networks:
- Increase awareness of data presentations at conferences that stakeholders may or may not be attending
- Extend the reach of KOL opinions on best practices or key issues to physicians, allied health providers, and payers
- Cumulate relevant disease-specific/clinical information published throughout the year in one special issue
- Leverage patient cases (real or scenarios) to educate HCPs on best practices for optimal patient management
- Educate HCPs on product and pivotal trial information
- Educate HCPs on clinical development data leading up to approval followed by practical application of data
- Highlight practical experiences and applications of disease management and/or product use
- Educate HCPs on evolving treatment guidelines on a specific disease state
- Explain the unmet need that remains unaddressed by currently available treatment options
- Explain how the mechanism of action of your product contributes to its clinical differentiation from other treatments
- Help HCPs educate patients/caregivers on disease state/treatment pathway
- Empower the cancer care coordination team members (ie, oncology nurse navigators) to further support better patient–care team interactions
Amplity’s proprietary, activated, and engaged oncology networks are a treasure trove for manufacturers looking to create awareness and understanding among key stakeholders. By collaborating with Amplity, manufacturers can bolster their efforts to create awareness, foster understanding, and build trust among key audiences, ultimately advancing the field of personalized cancer medicine.
We help our clients reach their target audiences through annual meetings, online communities, patient communities, market research, advisory boards, and custom peer-to-peer print & digital material written for specific audiences, like patients, their caregivers and families, and their wider treatment team. In this dynamic and competitive landscape, a customized approach is the key to achieving true impact.
Conclusion
As a solutions provider committed to improving the landscape of personalized medicine, we recognize the urgency of addressing clinical practice gaps. By maintaining a deep understanding of the impact of each gap, we develop and implement strategies that optimize the integration of predictive biomarker testing into clinical care for our pharmaceutical clients. This, in essence, allows us to unlock the full potential of personalized medicine, bringing new hope to patients and revolutionizing the way we approach cancer treatment. Click here to initiate a conversation with our Precision Medicine and Medical Communications teams.