New Game, New Moves
April 16, 2018
The shift to oral oncology medication blasts open the door to innovation in marketing, distribution, and patient care. With infused medications, manufacturers focus on ensuring the medication reaches the infusion sites (typically hospitals), while the sites handle scheduling and monitoring services. With oral medications, pharmacists take on a new role in distribution, and patient adherence presents new challenges that manufacturers must address.
Oral medications also reslice the financial pie: while hospital budgets and the public sphere cover the cost of in-hospital infused and dispensed drugs, both public and private payers now share responsibility for oral medications. These drugs don’t come cheap – monthly costs typically run into the thousands, with a single pill often topping $200. This means marketers need to focus more attention on the private payer land- scape to ensure the broadest mix of coverage. Patients, in turn, often require support securing that coverage. If a patient accidentally drops a pill down the sink, the stakes rise still further.
Forward-thinking manufacturers are tackling these challenges through innovative specialty programs. Take the YOU&I program7 for Janssen’s Imbruvica, for example. The program takes patient support up several notches by helping patients organize their schedules and manage their finances. Putting the icing on the cake, YOU&I also supports caregivers through their journeys. In 2016, the Ontario Pharmaceutical Marketing Association recognized the program with a Skuy award in the Patient- Centric Programs category.
Astellas Pharma Canada, for its part, bagged a Skuy award last year8 for an awareness- raising campaign related to its oral medication for prostate cancer, Xtandi. Called Pucks4Prostate, the Nov. 2017 campaign had Astellas donating $5 (to a maximum of $50,000) to Movember Canada for each selfie hash-tagged with #pucks4prostate – moustaches optional.9
As it turns out, even distribution channels can impact patient behaviour. In a retrospective study of over 11,000 patients receiving oral cancer medications, adherence and persistence rose significantly in patients who accessed their drugs through specialty pharmacies.10 At the same time, an intelligently designed retail pharmacy approach makes the most sense in some contexts.
With all these considerations to juggle, oral oncology manufacturers need to think carefully and creatively about how to invest their marketing dollars to have the largest impact where it counts the most: with patients.
References
7. Imbruvica (Canada) YOU&I program. https://www.janssenpro.ca/medication/imbruvica/campaign/you-and-i-bioadvance-program
8. OMPA 2017 Skuy award recipients. http://www.theopmaonline.org/skuyawards/images/pdfs/Skuy_Awards_Winners_2017_v3b.pdf
9. Astellas news release, Nov. 1, 2017. https://astellascanadapdfs.blob.core.windows.net/english/EPR%20-%20P4P%20Launch%20Release_final_EN.pdf
10. Stokes M et al. Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics. BMC Health Serv Res 2017; 17:414.