Managing an alliance launch within the US oncology market

The challenge

Two large pharmaceutical companies announced a partnership to co-promote an oncology therapy launching within the US market across multiple indications. The organizations had partnered together several years prior on an indication launch, but both had been re-staffed with all new cross-functional teams new to this alliance work. Vynamic was initially contacted by these companies, seeking support in establishing new ways of working for strategic decisions and executional processes, while maximizing efficiencies and dependencies. In addition to supporting those areas, Vynamic ultimately helped navigate an improbable, and highly accelerated launch sequence of two indications receiving approval within two weeks of one another. This unexpected progression of approvals required swift, strategic prioritization to ensure key resources for both companies went live in market, despite compressed timing circumstances.

The approach

Product Launch is a fast-paced, often complex time with many moving parts. Navigating across two companies in a co-promote requires hyper-focused coordination across multiple functional areas to ensure processes are defined and communications are clear to avoid delays or other mishaps.

Vynamic deployed launch navigation resources skilled in understanding the nuances and ways of working that would set teams up for success and allow for leadership visibility across both companies, shared tools and processes, and ultimately efficient time to market. Vynamic’s approach focused on these key areas, critical for enabling this coordination:

Launch navigation tools and templates

• Developed a launch navigation process including meeting cadence and initial plan creation, detailed milestones, deliverables, timelines and statuses, action and risk logs, as well as a promotional asset tracking dashboard
• Set up and management of the content sharing platform approved for use by both companies, as well as training, Q&A, live demos, and account creation for each launch team member, across both companies

Cross-company internal process creation & alignment

• Process creation, alignment, and communication for promotional review process and communication cascade as well as PI flow on Day 0 across the two companies

Cross-company communications & governance

• Created and lead cross-company launch kick-off, including introductions to each function’s counterparts and launch milestones
• Hosted weekly launch lead and planner briefings
• Led monthly cross-company and cross-functional launch meetings to ensure alignment across teams and awareness of developments in filing, review, approval, labeling, etc.
• Led monthly single company internal team meetings across functions to discuss confidential areas of the launch
• At approval (and 45 days post), led daily cross-company, cross-functional, and agency meetings to align on top priorities for each day and interdependencies related to each

Launch readiness strategy reviews

• Developed indication strategy and launch plans across multiple functional workstreams (e.g., Marketing, Access Strategy, Medical, Training, Diagnostics, etc.) for multiple leadership reviews
• Created company-specific prioritized asset lists to ensure alignment on approach for critical assets go-live

Cross-functional day 0 executional plans

• Day 0 planning with minute-by-minute and day-by-day tasks across 15+ functions, holiday/time of day scenario planning, asset prioritization, communication plan, leadership dashboard, etc.
• Multiple day 0 planning sessions and trial run approval practices based on various approval scenarios

Promotional asset dashboard

• Creation of custom cross-company and cross-functional dashboard to monitor the status of each promotional asset from label availability to promotional review by each company’s independent review board

The result

Vynamic created and managed a launch planning approach across two companies, providing the required visibility and alignment across all functional areas, including leadership, and ensured tools were right-sized to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Internal processes related to communication, ways of working, and asset review and approval were designed and implemented and enabled seamless day-of-approval execution across both companies.

The Vynamic team ultimately navigated an improbable launch sequence, receiving approval on the second indication first, and the first indication receiving approval two weeks early. They aggressively accelerated the review and approval of key sales resources, launching less than 2 weeks post approval. Vynamic also coordinated the approval of nearly 30 additional crucial promotional assets across both companies within 15 business days of approval, and 85% of all launch assets were in-market within 30 days post approval.

Additionally, the Vynamic team defined and created an enduring launch plan template, launch milestone tracker, and promotional asset tracker to be leveraged across additional indication launches, providing lasting impact in these key organizations.