Posts tagged ‘Pharma Strategy’
Making sense of data is what we do. We live in a world where, thanks to the internet, the sheer volume of available data is increasing at an enormous rate.
Too often we see staff at client companies focus their energy on gathering data as cheaply as possible, instead of asking or seeking to understand what does all the data mean from a competitive stand point?
Data is now commoditized. Anyone can gain access to past ASCO Virtual Meetings, for example, and watch a rerun of conference presentations. While obtaining data is relatively easy, insights are a lot more expensive and difficult to generate.
Why?
Well, they require the application of knowledge, deep understanding and expertise of the topic to analyze, conceptualize and visualize data, and then extrapolate what it means to a company or product.
Here’s a fun video that shows how a picture tells a thousand words. Professor Hans Rosling, in this excerpt from a BBC documentary, shows the public health history of 200 countries in 4 minutes…
Turning data into a powerful illustration requires the expenditure of intellectual effort.
Making sense of data is what we do at Icarus Consultants.
After a hectic ASCO 2012, the next conference we will be attending is The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), Inositol Phospholipid Signaling in Physiology and Disease event on June 26 -27, 2012 in New York.
The NYAS often run events that are on a par with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), where leading researchers present their early-stage findings to the science community. Cancer signaling pathways are complex and understanding basic science in this area is key to rational drug development and target identification.
The keynote lecture is by Lewis Cantley, who will speak on “Phosphoinositol Signaling and Disease.” Of the many interesting topics from a new product development perspective that will be discussed, a few that caught our attention include:
- Lloyd Trotman, PTEN Activity
- Neil Rosen, Mechanisms of PI3K Inhibition in Cancer
- David Solit, Interrupting the PI3K-AKT-mTOR Pathway in Cancer Therapy
Researchers from Novartis and Gilead will also discuss some of the challenges in clinical development and targeting PI3Kδ in lymphoid malignancies.
If you are interested in the PI3-kinase area for drug development or want to learn more about the where the cutting edge of cancer research is at in this area, then the NYAS event on inositol phospholipid signaling looks well worth attending.
Icarus Consultants is delighted to be a promotional partner with The New York Academy of Sciences for this event, and in return we can offer readers a 15% discount on the cost of meeting registration. Use the special code INOSITOL15 when making your booking – please note this does not apply to existing registrations.
If you can’t make it to New York, Sally Church will be writing about it on Pharma Strategy Blog, unless a budding young scientist attending the meeting would like to write a guest post – if that’s you, then please do contact us and we would be delighted to hear from you!
Update June 28, 2012
The New York Academy of Sciences meeting was well worth attending.
Sally Church, PhD has written about data presented at the meeting on PI3K delta and Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitors in development for CLL & NHL.
In her Pharma Strategy Blog post, Sally discusses some of the challenges and opportunities for GS-1101 (formerly CAL-101) and ibrutinib.
Do you know who your thought leaders are and what they think about your product?
March 10th, 2012
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.
At Icarus Consultants, we help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies bring new products to market.
When we look at the market opportunity for a new product, it’s not enough to have a great product, key to success is getting paid for it. Pricing and reimbursement are important in the commercial strategy!
Is it better to obtain the highest price for a new targeted therapy or alternatively have a lower price and obtain more market share? From a marketing strategy perspective, there is sometimes a case to be made for a lower price, but it’s a hard sell to convince senior management they are not leaving money on the table.
As to cancer immunotherapy, Dendreon with sipuleucel-T have shown that it can offer a survival benefits to some cancer patients. Other vaccines and immunotherapies are in development.
However, as Pieter Droppert points out in an insightful post on Biotech Strategy blog about a pilot study for PANVAC (Bavarian Nordic, CV-301), there remain a number of challenges that still have to be overcome. These include:
- How do we identify upfront which patients will respond to the vaccine?
- How do we evaluate how well patients are doing without clinically validated surrogate markers to aid in assessment?
You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.
There is a plenary session on cancer immunotherapy at the AACR-NCI-EORTC Cancer Molecular Targets & Therapeutics conference that starts in San Francisco tomorrow.
We look forward to obtaining further insights on the opportunities and challenges with cancer immunotherapy at this meeting.
Sally Church, PhD on Pharma Strategy Blog has written about research on macrophage cell surface protein S100A10 and the role this plays in cancer metastasis and tumor growth.
As Sally notes, “macrophages are critical in driving tumour growth, invasion and metastasis. Macrophages are like the Pacmen of cells…” What a great visual metaphor!
Recently published research now shows that the macrophage cell surface protein, S100A10 plays an important role in how macrophages move to the site of tumor growth, a process that is key to tumor development and angiogenesis.
Is S100A10 a potential druggable target? You will have to read Sally’s insightful blog post to learn more.
Richard Steinman from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in “The Oncologist” (the journal of the Society of Translational Oncology), comments on the importance of the noncancerous cells in tumors (the stroma):
“The stroma, including fibroblasts, adipocytes, endothelial cells, and immune cells, had been demonstrated to provide critical metabolites to cancer cells and engages in tumor-promoting crosstalk with cancer cells.”
PET scan of enzyme MAO-B Image Source: NIH
Recent research has shown the ability to image metabolic markers of tumor activity. On Biotech Strategy Blog, Pieter Droppert writes about a metabolic marker of malignant glioma cells, 5-ALA (5-Amino-Levulinic-Acid) and how this may help glioblastoma surgery.
Meanwhile on Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church discusses the use of folate receptor alpha fluorescence imaging in ovarian cancer.
Imaging of metabolic markers may assist in the identification and targeting of critical mediators of cancer-stromal crosstalk. This is an interesting area to watch.
The forthcoming AACR-NCI-EORTC conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics has a plenary session on “Targeting the Tumor Stroma Interaction.“
That sounds like a simple question, but can actually be difficult to answer.
As part of a market entry strategy or overview of the commercial landscape, we often have to look at the regulatory framework in a country.
For many products from pharma or biotech it’s obvious that something is a drug, medicinal product, biological product or device. However, for those involving nanotechnology, tissue engineering, biologics, or combinations of drugs/devices, it can be less clear.
Understanding how a product is classified from a regulatory perspective, something that may differ between countries, will impact a path to market strategy.
In the United States, under the Federal, Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321), the term “drug” includes:
“articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals.”
Dietary supplements such as vitamins are usually not considered to be drugs.
However, new research is coming out that shows vitamins may be more active than we may have previously thought.
Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog has commented on research that showed giving vitamin E supplements to healthy men led to a 17% increased risk of prostate cancer.
In pancreatic cancer, researchers showed that Vitamin E may improve the effectiveness of gemcitabine.
In future it is possible that the regulatory classification for vitamins may change if they end up being given as active compounds for the treatment of a disease. What is a drug remains a simple question, but one that is not always easy to answer.
Making a Difference to the Lives of Cancer Patients
Sally Church has written over 900 blog posts on Pharma Strategy Blog about oncology and hematology new product development.
One series of posts stands out, and that is the “Making a Difference” interviews with thought leaders and business visionaries who are making a difference to the lives of cancer patients.
The latest in the series has just been published – a video interview with Dr Gordon B. Mills MD, PhD of MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Sally interviewed Dr Mills in Stockholm at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress where he gave a keynote presentation on personalized medicine in the presidential, plenary session of the meeting.
Anyone interested in cancer drug development strategy, personalized medicine and how industry and academia can collaborate together in drug development should watch this video.
The other interviews Sally has undertaken in the “Making a Difference” series are with Alain Moussy, Ross Camidge, Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Charles Sawyers.
We look forward to many more in the future.
One of the pharma marketing strategy consulting services that we offer clients is a competitive landscape, market opportunity report.
These custom reports analyze a pathway, disease, tumor type or competitive set, and can include a thorough analysis of clinical data, biomarkers, epidemiology, market size and competitor activity. All our work comes with actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
Once our clients understand the competitive landscape, and the market opportunity for their product we often generate a path to market strategy.
One of the ways our consultants keep abreast of current pharma/biotech industry news is through writing about science and clinical data.
Following the recent 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (EMCC 2011), the joint meeting of ESMO, ECCO and ESTRO, Sally Church wrote an in-depth analysis of the phase II data for T-DM1 (trastuzumab emtansine) in first line metastatic breast cancer. You can read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.
Meanwhile on Biotech Strategy Blog, Pieter Droppert interviewed Dr Chris Parker about the phase III, ALSYMPCA trial results for radium-223 (Alpharadin) in advanced prostate cancer.
This radiopharmaceutical provides new treatment options for a neglected group of men who are unable to take chemotherapy. You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog, and also watch the video interview below:
Alpharadin may change standard of care for prostate cancer patients with bone mets
September 29th, 2011
Daedalus
We recently attended the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm. Paradigm shifting data in breast cancer and advanced prostate cancer were presented at what turned out to be an excellent meeting in a charming, if expensive, city.
Sally Church (@MaverickNY) live tweeted several sessions from the meeting and was name the “Top Twitter Influencer” for the #EMCC2011 hashtag. You can catch up with the tweets fron ECCO ESMO ESTRO 2011 on Pharma Strategy Blog.
Source: Fox epractice
Pieter Droppert (@3NT) has written several posts on biotech strategy blog about the exciting data for radium-223 (Alpharadin) in advanced prostate cancer that was presented in Stockholm.
He also produced a video of the media briefing by Dr Chris Parker from the Royal Marsden Hospital where the ALSYMPCA phase 3 trial results were reviewed. It is well worth watching!
Please contact us if you would like to learn more about the fast moving Prostate Cancer market and how pharma marketing strategy may be impacted by the new products in development such as radium-223 (Alpharadin), that is on fast track for FDA approval in 2012.