Do you know who your thought leaders are and what they think about your product?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Daedalus

One of the emerging trends we saw at the recent European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Paris was an increase in the number of plenary and session presentations by physicians from Eastern European countries.

This trend is set to continue, and we expect to see more physicians from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) group of countries and other emerging markets presenting at global science and medical meetings in the future.

Poland is a good example of a country that should be on the radar of any global pharmaceutical company. It is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, and was the only European country to avoid a recession in 2008-2009.

It was interesting to note that Tomasz Borkowski (Department of Urology at the Medical University of Warsaw) who gave a major session presentation at EAU on “Cancer induced bone disease – prevention and treatment’ listed only one company on his disclosures.

Clearly, some companies are ahead of others in identifying and building relationships with thought or key opinion leaders (KOLs) as they are commonly known.

One of the services we offer clients is market research with thought leaders at the global, national and regional level. Like all market research, this is anonymous – you don’t know the name or the institution and the physician doesn’t know who the sponsor is. This allows the doctor to speak more freely. This type of market research can provide valuable insights into what they think about a product or market opportunity with less bias.

Do you know who your thought leaders are and what think about your product? If not, please contact us and we would be delighted to help you meet your brand business goals.

Are you adapting to the changing prostate cancer market?

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Daedalus

The prostate cancer market continues to evolve at a fast pace. Companies with products on the market or in development will need to adapt their marketing strategy to the changing prostate cancer market dynamics. Some of the recent news includes:

MDV3100 shows 4.8 improvement in median overall survival

Sally Church, PhD on Pharma Strategy Blog interviewed David Hung, MD CEO of Medivation and discussed the MDV3100 clinical trial data presented at ASCO GU.

Sally has been following the development of MDV3100 for a while, and previously interviewed Dr Charles Sawyers one of the co-developers.

MDV3100 showed an improvement in median overall survival of 4.8 months in advanced prostate cancer, and offers a number of significant advantages over abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) due to its different mechanism of action on the androgen receptor.

One of the advantages is it’s ability to target splice variants:

You can read more about MDV3100 on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Is ARN-509 more effective than MDV3100?

Another interesting compound in prostate cancer drug development is Aragon’s ARN-509. Recent research published in the AACR journal, “Cancer Research” suggests that ARN-509 may be a more potent androgen-receptor antagonist than MDV3100.

Whether ARN-509 will make it to market remains in question given that Medivation claim the compound was part of the intellectual property it acquired from UCLA along with what became MDV3100.

You can read more about the potential of Aragon’s ARN-509 in prostate cancer on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Radium-223 (Alpharadin) significantly prolongs time to first Skeletal Related Event

Pieter Droppert has written on Biotech Strategy Blog about the radium-223 (Alpharadin) clinical trial data presented by Dr Oliver Sartor at ASCO GU.

Alpharadin is a bone targeted radiopharmaceutical that has shown not only a significant delay in the time to first skeletal related event (SRE) but an increase in overall survival.

Dr Sartor kindly offered some clinical perspective on the data that you can read on Biotech Strategy Blog.

In case you missed it, the video interview with Dr Chris Parker at ECCO/ESMO 2011 in Stockholm offers further information on radium-223 and the ALSYMPCA trial results:

Amgen fails to convince ODAC that Xgeva should have a prostate bone mets indication

If you were following the prostate cancer news this past week, then the ODAC 12:1 vote against granting an indication for denosumab (Xgeva) for the prevention of prostate cancer bone metastases was in the news

Pieter Droppert collated the Xgeva ODAC meeting tweets on Storify if you are interested in what was live tweeted during the meeting.

Once Alpharadin is approved will radiation oncologists now get more involved in the treatment of prostate cancer and how will this impact the market dynamics? Will urologists favor MDV3100 that does not require administration of prednisone at the expense of Zytiga?

Companies will need to adapt their marketing strategy as new prostate cancer new products come to market in 2012.

Understanding the biology of colorectal cancer will lead to more rational drug development

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Daedalus

Cancer drug development is becoming more targeted and focused as a result of scientific advances. The understanding of ALK gene rearrangements in lung cancer led to the development of crizotinib (Xalkori) for the subset of patients who are ALK-positive.

Sally Church, Ph.D on Pharma Strategy Blog has reviewed some of the recent advances in our understanding of colororectal cancer (CRC).

Resistance to chemotherapy in colon cancer

The transcription factor AP-2 epsilon (TFAP2E-DKK4) appears to be responsible for some of the resistance to chemotherapy that occurs during colon cancer.

As Sally noted, “the presence of the TFAP2E-DKK4 mutation may explain why some patients with colorectal cancer do better with chemotherapy than others.”

Inflammation linked to the early development of colon cancer

Researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified the role of inflammation and silencing of tumor suppressor genes in early colorectal cancer.

Understanding the biology of the disease could lead to the ability to identify those at high risk of developing colon cancer. Chemopreventative drugs could then be given to this subset of high risk patients to delay the onset of cancer. An exciting prospect!

Understanding the role of CIMP in early colorectal cancer

CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) can occur in 30% of colorectal cancer patients and has been shown to be an independent predictor of survival with 5FU in early or adjuvant CRC. CIMP may play an important role in tumor development. Expect to hear more on the link between inflammation, DNA methylation and early development of CRC.

Identifying subsets of patients will support rational drug development

Researchers have now shown that BRAF(V600E) mutations occur in 8-10% of colon cancers. The ability to identify this subset of patients could allow therapeutic options to be specifically targeted at them, in the same way that ALK+ lung cancer patients now receive crizotinib. Previously though, we didn’t know why vemurafenib was showing lack of efficacy in this group. New research has now given us some pointers.

As Sally noted on Pharma Strategy Blog, “a combination of vemurafenib and and an EGFR inhibitor such as as erlotinib, cetuximab or gefitinib, might be a useful clinical approach to try therapeutically in patients with colon cancer harboring the BRAFV600E mutation.”

As we learn more about the biology and early development of colorectal cancer, the ability to undertake rational drug development will increase. This is good news both for patients and for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies who want to successfully bring new products to market.

Pharma Conference Coverage Strategy

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Daedalus

We live in a world of data that threatens to overwhelm our work and personal lives. Part of the reason for this is the price of data storage continues to fall dramatically.

Today, an external hard drive offers a 1TB capacity; a few years ago the same product offered 100GB. A 10x increase in storage capacity for the same money in the space of a few years.

Data is now available from online posters, abstracts, webcasts and presentations. We also have Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media competing for our time.

ASCO 2011: “the never ending walk”

What this means is that if you plan to attend a major medical or scientific meeting such as the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which offers a lot of data, you need to have a conference coverage strategy.

Here are a few tips we suggest you consider:

Don’t go for a “Data Dump”

Too often we see a “fear of missing out” (FOMO) mentality drive a “we must capture everything” policy. All this results in is a mass of data that somebody has to analyze after the meeting. Too often a 300+ page data dump report (when it finally is produced) ends up sitting on the metaphorical shelf.

Focus on Key Questions

Prior to a major medical or scientific meeting it’s important to develop a list of the key questions that a brand, commercial or new products team need answered. The questions could be on competitor activity, developments in a pathway or impact of clinical data on the standard of care. Data collection can then be focusoned on answering those key questions.

Insights cost more

Recently, staff at a top 20 pharma company told us they were paying $X for a conference “data dump” but only had 10% of $X available for strategic insights. In Twitter speak, they had #LostThePlot as it should be the other way round since insights are more valuable than raw data.

As management consultants, we might produce a Powerpoint slide with a table or chart based on data from 20 posters. In order to select those 20 key posters, we could have reviewed perhaps 200 posters originally. Which would you rather have, one slide with insights and analysis or 200 Powerpoint slides with data? Our philosophy is “less is more.”

Insights cost more because it takes in-depth therapeutic area knowledge and expertise to condense data into a meaningful story and make strategic recommendations.

What is your conference coverage strategy for this year? Please contact us if you would like to learn more about our capabilities.

Insights from AACR Molecular Targets Meeting

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Daedalus

San Francisco Transamerica Pyramid © Pieter Droppert 225x300 Insights from AACR Molecular Targets Meeting There was a lot of interesting science at the recent AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics international conference in San Francisco.

In particular, the poster sessions offered the opportunity to discuss pre-clinical and early drug development work, and share insights into pathways and mechanisms of action. If you are in new product development, it’s a key meeting to attend.

What was the news at AACR molecular targets?

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog aggregated the live tweets from the joint AACR-NCI-EORTC meeting, although the absence of wifi in the plenary sessions meant that there were fewer tweets than might have been expected.

Sally has written about some of the data presented on breast cancer at the meeting. In her insightful post she reviews the Syndax data for entinostat in second-line ER/PR+ breast cancer, and also asks whether ALK is a new target in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC)?

From what was heard at the meeting, there will be a lot of new breast cancer data at the forthcoming San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) that Sally will also be attending.

More insights from AACR molecular targets will be available on Pharma Strategy Blog in the next few days.

Meanwhile on Biotech Strategy Blog, Pieter Droppert has written about some of the sessions he attended in San Francisco on:

Next year’s 2012 molecular targets meeting will be in Dublin, good news for all those who like Guinness!

Neuroendocrine Cancer Awareness Day

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Daedalus

November 10, 2011 is the second worldwide neuroendocrine (NET) cancer awareness day. Pancreatic NET is what Steve Jobs sadly succumbed to.

In recognition of NET Cancer Day, Sally Church has written an insightful post on Pharma Strategy Blog about pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and new treatment options. It is well worth reading!

Sally highlights two new therapies for pNET approved by the FDA this year:

everolimus (Afinitor) from Novartis that targets mTOR, downstream of the PI3K/AKT pathway
sunitinib (Sutent) from Pfizer, a multikinase inhibitor

Both showed a benefit over placebo with an increase in progression free survival (PFS). They do, however, have some challenges associated with their side effects.

Sally concludes that “in the future, we may well see sequencing studies emerge as well as other targeted therapies to prolong outcomes for patients with this rare disease.”

We hope that the Neuroendocrine Cancer Awareness day achieves its goal of raising awareness about this disease. You can read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.

MDV3100 in Advanced Prostate Cancer

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Daedalus

The fast moving prostate cancer market took another leap forward last week with the announcement of positive phase III data for Medivation’s MDV3100.

As reported by Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog, Medivation announced that the interim analysis of the AFFIRM trial showed a 4.8 month increase in overall survival (OS) compared to placebo.

Although this is only interim and not final data, Sally observed:

“the 4.8 month improvement in OS in post-chemo setting is superior to that previously seen reported for abiraterone (Zytiga), which had a 3.9 month advantage over placebo.”

Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog noted, MDV3100 and Zytiga have completely different mechanisms of action in advanced prostate cancer.

MDV3100 is an androgen receptor blocker, while Zytiga is an androgen biosynthesis inhibitor. This distinction is key. Zytiga inhibits the CYP17 enzyzme complex required for androgen biosynthesis. However, a consequence of CYP17 inhibition is an increase in mineralocorticoid levels, which can lead to hypokalemia, hypertension, fluid retention.

The result is that Zytiga requires coadministration of a corticosteroid (prednisone) to reduce the incidence and severity of potential mineralocorticoid adverse reactions.

MDV3100 does not require the administration of a steroid, which is a big advantage to patients. Instead it blocks the androgen receptor (AR) that is highly expressed on prostate cancer cells.

Cora Sternberg presents Prostate Cancer Educational Symposia at EMCC 2011 in Stockholm

There are a lot of new products in the pipeline for prostate cancer including TAK-700, Cabozantinib (XL184), radium-223 chloride (Alpharadin), BPX-101, Prostvac-VF, ipilumumab, Custirsen (OGX-011), dasatinib (Sprycel), lenalidomide (Revlimid) and ARN-509 to name a few.

The prostate cancer market is forecast to grow from $1B to $5B by 2015 as new products are approved and new treatment options become available. This is good news for advanced prostate cancer patients.

Sally Church invited to be distinguished speaker at MD Anderson Cancer Center Science Park

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Daedalus

It is a pleasure to announce that Sally Church, PhD has been invited to be a speaker in the Distinguished Lecturer Student Seminar Series held at the Science Park campus of the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The Science Park located at Smithville, just outside of Austin, TX is the location of the Victoria Harris Cockrell Cancer Research Center, where basic science research is undertaken in the Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis.

The mission of the center is “to investigate the molecular biology of cancer and to develop means for cancer prevention and detection.”

Sally’s seminar on October 5, 2011 to the graduate students in cancer research is entitled, “On Science, Blogging and Drug Development.”

We look forward to reading more about Sally’s visit and seminar on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Zelboraf (vemurafenib) approved in metastatic melanoma

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Daedalus

Last week the hot news was the anticipated FDA approval of vemurafenib (Zelboraf™) in metastatic melanoma for patients with BRAF V600E mutations.

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has written extensively about new products in development for metastatic melanoma. As Sally notes in her recent blog post discussing the Zelboraf™ approval:

“the good news is that oncologists now have two new agents for treatment in 2011, which is very much a grand cru year for melanoma.”

A little known fact is that Sally is a former finalist in the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper’s wine taster of the year competition, so it is perhaps not surprising to see some wine references in her writing.

If you are interested in the price of Zelboraf™ – you can find it on Pharma Strategy Blog where Sally analyses the cost of a course of treatment and compares this to the price for ipilimumab.

Pieter Droppert’s write-up of the 2011 ASCO annual meeting plenary data on metastatic melanoma was recently published in the august issue of Pharmacy Today.

Pharma Strategy Blog reaches 900 blog post milestone

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Daedalus

It takes desire, discipline and determination to blog regularly, and as a result many blogs fall by the wayside over time. However, Sally Church has been writing a blog on oncology, hematology, cancer science & biology, clinical trials and new product development for the past five years. It continues to go from strength to strength thanks to Sally’s passion for the area.

Sally recently announced on Pharma Strategy Blog that she had reached the 900 blog post milestone. In recognition of this, Sally took the time to answer the follow questions:

Why do you blog?
How do you decide what to write about?
What makes a good blog post?
Looking back on 900 posts – which posts are most memorable?
What are your future goals for Pharma Strategy Blog?

You can find out Sally’s answers in the following video:

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