Academy

Bringing a new drug to market requires a deep understanding of the strategies necessary for a successful launch. Without a complete and comprehensive view of these strategies, successfully launching a drug is nearly impossible.

It was Socrates, the Greek philosopher, who once said: "The only thing I know for sure, is that I know nothing!" Anyone who has gained a certain amount of knowledge and experience shares this same thought - at least when egos are put aside.

If we scale the philosopher's words to business level, it becomes clear that, although our knowledge may never be complete, striving for new information and developing our experience is crucial to success.

The pharmaceutical industry is a case in point: there is a constant influx of new medications into the market, of new regulations or new scientific findings, and healthcare professionals as well as payers or government officials must keep up with all that new information flooding the healthcare landscape.

At Squares we believe that knowledge really is power, as it helps level-up the amount of information for a group of stakeholders with different backgrounds and perspectives, who wish to assess the value of an innovation.

But it must not be reduced to just drumming endless datasets into one's head. True knowledge arises from the ability to interconnect information, to make conclusions and to finally build your own opinion, in order to be able to make informed decisions.

Join Squares Academy and you or your team will be empowered to make informed decisions that will finally lead to success.

Launch Excellence

Less than 10% of all launches are excellent or achieve their targets.

Take for instance the story of Gardasil, the first Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This is a great example of how to turn a previously rather unpromising product potential into a success story. HPV is sexually transmitted and causes skin or mucous membrane growths, known as warts.

There are over 100 variations of HPV. Most of them cause only warts, but a few can lead to the development of cervical cancer. By positioning Gardasil as a vaccine that prevents cancer, the manufacturer moved the Product away from the unpopular STD market and shifted it right into the more impactful oncology market, while starting a broad cancer prevention campaign which resulted in a major success, with 25% of eligible females receiving the vaccine in the U.S.

During pre-launch and launch many factors influence your success.

In the case of Gardasil it was an excellent product positioning and an impactful communication of the product's values.

In some other cases the road to success may have led via a well planned clinical trial design, a smart choice of eligible patient subgroups or an intriguing pricing model.

Which launch strategy you chose depends on several internal and external factors. How to bring them all together and build a great success story can be learned.

Join our Squares Academy and profit from our experts who will be happy to share their year-long launch-expertise with you.

The world of P&R, Payers and HTA

The pricing and reimbursement of pharmaceuticals is based on individual requirements and national/local particularities of every single country.

In some markets like Germany, France, the UK, Canada and others, HTA-bodies evaluate the additional therapeutic benefit of the new medicine, comparing it to existing treatments.

However, the German HTA agency - in comparison to other agencies - does not recognize certain clinical data, which can be crucial, when designing your clinical development program.

Some reimbursement strategies may be focused on national requirements and some others (e.g. for Italy or Spain) need to focus on regional requirements within the country.

In some countries the manufacturer can set the price of their product freely for a certain amount of time, while in other countries, drug prices are subjected to a rigorous reference pricing system with lower-priced drug markets, which may influence launch-sequence planning.

Thus, a deep understanding of the peculiarities of the single markets, in terms of their pricing and reimbursement rules or the payer- and HTA-landscape, is of crucial importance when developing a launch strategy for a pharmaceutical product.

Join our Squares Academy and profit from our experts who will be happy to share their multi-market experience with you.

Medicine & medicines

Let's face it, providing health in healthcare systems without the contribution of pharma would be like trying to drive an electric car without a battery.

And as it is in traffic with many parties and their different backgrounds involved (e.g. engineers, pedestrians, the police, etc.), in healthcare the situation is pretty much the same.

Physicians, payers, government officials and professionals in pharma, just to name a few parties or stakeholders involved, are all playing a crucial part in healthcare.

The predominant language spoken in the area of healthcare however is the language of medicine (even though in the last years, the language of economics has taken some ground too).

Individuals with a medical or life-science background have obvious advantages over individuals with more humanistic backgrounds, when discussing the effect of checkpoint-inhibitors on Non small-cell lung cancers, or when comparing different gene-therapy options in the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

A fair eye-to-eye discussion among different parties or stakeholders can only take place, when the amount of information and knowledge is leveled-up.

Book a tailor-made lecture at the Squares Academy for you or your team and let our experts provide you with knowledge and insights you have been striving for.

Understanding HEOR

Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) is the confluence of two fields that work together to provide powerful data and insights for healthcare decision makers.

The first one, health economics, focuses on measuring and valuing the outcomes of healthcare interventions.

The second one, outcomes research, comprises a set of scientific disciplines that evaluate the effect of healthcare interventions on patients.

HEOR is therefore a framework that helps compare the estimated costs and consequences of different ways of delivering healthcare. There are four ways to approach the complexities of economic evaluation within HEOR:

Cost-minimization analysis (CMA)
Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA)
Cost-utility analysis (CUA)
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Each of these four methods explores the economic evaluation from a different angle, depending on the requirements of key stakeholders.

Book a tailor-made lecture at the Squares Academy for you or your team and let our experts provide you with knowledge and insights you have been striving for.