The power of authenticity in Product Launch

With contributions from: Owen Thomas, Grace Burtonwood and Mindy McGrath

A recent benchmark study involving roughly 200 assets revealed that over 50% of product launches have failed to meet expectations¹. What is the driving force behind this miss?

With experience leading over 450 launch engagements across 60 therapy areas, we know how crucial it is to get pharmaceutical launches right. At Vynamic, we believe that leading with authenticity not only ensures success in the launch of life-saving medicines to patients, but generates positive business results too.

The Life Sciences industry continues to grapple with an enduring sense of mistrust, fueled by an upsurge in negative media coverage and barriers hindering access to innovative medicines. Despite progress in building trust with patients, concerns about transparency persist. Approximately 50% of patients doubt Life Sciences companies understand their needs², and only 45% of healthcare professionals endorse the industry’s commitment to patient-centricity³. Various complexities, from authorisation processes to intricate supply chains, pose significant obstacles, impacting patients and overall product success and profitability. Amidst these challenges, there is a clear need to prioritise authenticity and place the patient at the centre of product launches right from the start.

Place the patient at the heart of your launch strategy: The Vitruvian Man analogy

Visualise a successful launch using the analogy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”. This iconic drawing represents balance and proportion, echoing the equilibrium we seek between engaging patients openly and prioritising their needs, and can be broken down into five key areas.

1. Human purpose: Is our launch focused on optimising patient outcomes with a patient centric mindset?
2. Empowering action: Are we empowering patients to actively participate in their own care?
3. Adaptability & flexibility: Are we able to adapt based on patient feedback?
4. Clear vision: Does our launch vision place the patient at the centre of what we are trying to achieve?
5. Core values: How will the launch team behave and commit to putting patients first?

In essence, applying the Vitruvian Man analogy ensures a launch strategy that not only addresses patient needs, but places them at the core of your goals, guides vision, empowers individuals, aligns with values, and adapts to ensure lasting success.

How to integrate patient perspectives across the end-to-end product lifecycle

At Vynamic, the guiding principle that we advise our clients to follow when considering patient engagement within their launches is the idea of “no decision about me without me”. We believe there are opportunities to put patients authentically at the centre of your launch, across the end-to-end product development lifecycle, and that a continuous feedback loop from early development through pre-launch and post-launch is essential. This should not be a “one and done”.

Early development

• Listen to a diverse range of patient needs
• Engage Patient Advocacy Groups (PAGs) early and transparently
• Conduct patient preference studies to align trial endpoints
• Provide community education to build trust and ensure inclusivity

Pre-launch

• Partner with PAGs for unified patient information
• Incorporate the patient voice in market access and payer engagement
• Cultivate an internal culture that places the patient at the centre

Post-launch

• Implement a feedback loop from wearables and real-world studies
• Measure post-launch impact using unconventional KPIs
• Leverage AI to analyse patient-generated data

Our approach not only ensures your launch strategy addresses patient needs but also leads to improved business and patient outcomes.

Business impact of a patient-centric approach

While the benefits of a patient-centric approach for patients are self-evident, the reverberations extend far beyond, impacting the return on investment (ROI) and bottom-line results. This is evident through accelerated trial recruitment, enhanced success rates, and increased market value of the product.^4,5

How Vynamic can help

At Vynamic, authenticity is not merely a value – it’s engrained in how we work and infuses every aspect of our client delivery. This commitment is embodied in our service offerings, spanning Product Launch, Customer Experience Transformation, and Culture Curation. We believe in transparent communication, building relationships based on trust, and delivering results that reflect our true commitment to our clients.

If you would like to find out more about the work we have delivered in these areas, or to view a video presentation that articulates these concepts in further detail, please complete the form below.

End Notes:

1. Putnam Associates analysis of Evaluate data
2. Trust and the reputation of the pharmaceutical industry: has the pandemic made a difference?
3. Is pharma patient centric? Not according to most doctors
4. The power of patient voices: how to strengthen patient-centricity
5. Improving Protocol Design Feasibility to Drive Drug Development Economics and Performance