Case Studies

Challenge: To remain competitive, evolve the brand communication strategy and campaign. The target was to promote awareness about the link between erectile dysfunction (ED) and associated diseases/conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, and the link between ED and certain lifestyle factors such as smoking and obesity.

Solution: PHASE II developed an eight-stage process to increase awareness of the Viagra G4 campaign, and expand on this with the education of the link between ED, associated disease and lifestyle factors. This consisted of market analytics, strategy evolution (positioning and messaging), a new creative campaign, new collateral material and marketing development initiatives.

Challenge: To educate doctors and patients on the critical steps involved in the reconstitution and delivery of Plenaxis in order to ensure that the patient receives the optimal dose required, resulting in testosterone levels being lowered. The three main concerns that needed coverage were: ensuring that the powder is as fine as possible at the onset to ease the reconstitution process; to ensure that users inject the solution correctly with maximum dispersion of the powder into the suspension ready for injection; and to ensure that the solution is mixed efficiently but not aggressively to avoid foaming.

Solution: PHASE II developed core collateral materials including an updated Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC)-style Patient Information Leaflet (PIL), an instructional reconstitution leave piece for Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) for use by field force with customers, and a short CGI animation presenting the reconstitution technique with voiceover instructions. The result was a revitalization of the reconstitution technique instructions by upgrading and reproducing materials to help instruct key customers/stakeholders on the reconstitution process to ensure that the correct delivery of dose and optimal treatment is achieved by all patients.

Challenge: To support the Neuropathic pain Patient Symptom Awareness Campaign (NPSAC) in development and launch across 20 local affiliates, making the NPSAC a truly pan-European initiative. The main aim was to create a common language between physicians and patients.

Solution: PHASE II designed a number of support materials for patients and HCPs in the form of posters, patient leaflets and symptom cards, to draw attention to and educate both physicians and patients alike on the symptoms of neuropathic pain. This started as a UK campaign, but has since been translated into a number of languages and has spread to 39 countries across Europe.

Challenge: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) via its progression to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an important cause of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. In March 2009, a panel of hepatic experts met with support from Boehringer Ingelheim to discuss emerging diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities as well as future developments in NAFLD, NASH and liver fibrosis. Boehringer Ingelheim pre-clinical R&D data highlighted the potential utility of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor linagliptin and the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan for fibrogenic hepatic indications. The company wished to share the insights from the meeting with a wider audience to stimulate further progress in these areas of unmet clinical need in hepatology.

Solution: PHASE II supported the development of a peer-reviewed manuscript summarizing the key discussions and learnings from the two-day meeting. A PHASE II Scientific Director attended the meeting, participated in the discussions and afterwards worked with the manuscript co-authors and the PHASE II Editorial Team to identify a high impact target journal and to develop and submit the manuscript (ensuring that all medical writing support was disclosed and fully in line with Good Publication Practice 2, (GPP2) guidelines). The accepted manuscript was published in Liver International (Impact Factor 2.99) in May 2010 and can be downloaded here.

Challenge: Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in adults is a well-recognized clinical entity, however there is growing evidence to support the use of GH replacement therapy in several conditions not covered by current treatment guidelines. In November 2008, Merck Serono supported a meeting of International Experts to explore the evidence for additional uses of GH in adults.

Solution: A PHASE II Senior Medical Writer attended the meeting and developed a supplement for the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation based on the experts' presentations and discussions. All medical writing support was fully disclosed and in line with Good Publication Practice 2, (GPP2) guidelines. The resulting supplement contained seven peer-reviewed papers on different aspects of GH use in adults and was published in Q1 2009 – allowing Merck Serono to distribute reprints of the supplement at the 11th European Congress of Endocrinology held in Istanbul, Turkey in April 2009.

Challenge: Interpret the data generated by a Europe-wide patient survey focused on current standards of diagnosis and referrals to a doctor with a special interest in the condition. The client wanted to use this data to raise awareness of the current standards and highlight areas where improvement is required.

Solution: PHASE II developed a full report presenting the findings of the survey including graphs, tables and statistical analysis. This multi-level analysis identified trends, variance and anomalies across Europe, within regions and in specific countries.

The report was constructed in such a way that it would be accessible and relevant to a wide audience including healthcare professionals, patients and policy makers. In addition, we produced a slide deck to be used in conjunction with the report to reach as many stakeholders as possible.

The client is now using these materials to raise awareness amongst policy makers as part of ongoing campaigns to improve standards of patient care.

Challenge: To identify and profile leading KOLs across several different solid tumor types and determine the networks that exist between them and practising oncologists across key markets.

Solution: Using a rigorous process of secondary research and analysis, followed by primary research with targeted KOLs, PHASE II identified and delivered a comprehensive listing of leading KOLs in the oncology area, ranked to pre-determined criteria. This listing enabled us to map the interactions of each KOL amongst their peers and with practising oncologists across the globe. Finally, we built and populated a web-based application to allow rapid retrieval and analysis of the information and networks in real time. This allowed our client to determine which KOLs had the most expertise across various criteria, e.g. regulatory expertise, clinical trial experience etc. The study results speak for themselves along with the insights provided that changed the way this company conducted its KOL activities.

Challenge: The European Team needed to develop a promotional forecast model for implementation and use by its country marketing managers. The aim was to determine the impact of promotional expenditure on forecast returns from its market-leading product, if actively promoted across the emerging markets of Europe.

Solution: In response PHASE II designed a process that, in addition to meeting the goal of “developing the forecast model”, also up-skilled the knowledge of affiliate marketing managers in terms of market modeling and forecasting know-how. The result: a better-informed affiliate team of marketers who were able to determine assumptions and populate the model architecture, thus allowing them to accurately forecast sales expectations for their product according to different scenarios envisaged.

Challenge: Appraise the competitor environment to benchmark the client’s target product profile requirements across efficacy, safety and tolerability parameters. In addition, the client wished to profile competitor promotional activities as observed in the online and offline type 2 environment.

Solution: Over the past 12 months PHASE II has established a bespoke network of medical advisors (Specialists, General Physicians, Nurses and Payers – collectively known as the Intelligence Network) to assist in “acquiring” competitive intelligence anonymously and confidentially for PHASE II. Once sourced, collated, analyzed, categorized and summarized, a series of key market insight reports were delivered using WebEx and face-to-face meetings. Monthly insights were provided into:

• Corporate – competitor strategies & map; activities, e.g. organizational changes, investments, and key executive roles
• Medical – advisory board participants & topics discussed; R&D/PIV trial plans
• Marketing – field-based promotional activities
• Customers – perceptions of therapies, ideal patient profile per therapy, and market share expectations

Challenge: Determine the market potential for an existing therapy in OAB in the latter stages of its lifecycle prior to Loss of Exclusivity (LoE) across target-emerging markets. Additionally, develop and support the implementation of a commercial strategy encompassing positioning, communications strategy and marketing communication activities.

Solution: PHASE II designed a three-stage interactive program of work that encompassed secondary data sourcing and analysis across the target-emerging markets to establish a benchmark evaluation of market potential. An internal multinational workshop was also organized and run with key emerging market managers to consolidate market potential calculations and agree strategic intent. Finally, further series of work delivered a robust positioning and key messages, communications strategy and promotional marketing activities plan.

Challenge: The Global Marketing Team at this client company needed to prepare a global communications strategy as a basis for launching an exciting fixed-dose combination therapy for acne. As the product would be undergoing simultaneous launches in the North America, EU and BRIC markets, it was crucial to have complete internal alignment in terms of an agreed strategic intent for the brand.

Solution: PHASE II proposed, developed, organized and implemented a four-way brand communications development workplan designed to help the company:
(i) understand the market environment for the new product including its dynamics, competitors, customer needs and positioning opportunities; (ii) with its organize and moderate a series of strategic workshops each designed to tackle key imperatives for launch success, (iii) with creative development which resulted in a core global advertising campaign and series of core collateral materials; and (iv) the development of a strategic launch guide and global branding kit disseminated to all markets to ensure consistency in promotional marketing effort. The result: the client company’s best ever product launch, with sales exceeding expectations in 80% of markets.

Challenge: To target unmet needs, repositioning the brand in the market and to extend the product's lifecycle. The main requirement was to raise awareness of Eprex, and how the drug offered the optimal dosage range for the effective treatment of anemia.

Solution: PHASE II conducted extensive research and analysis of the competing market. This resulted in the development of a new creative strategy and the launch of a new Eprex campaign, completely rebranding the product and raising the product’s profile on the market.

Challenge: To raise awareness of a new drug that has recently completed its pivotal trials. Following the completion of an extensive study, there was a requirement to communicate those results to healthcare professionals.

Solution: The findings were communicated at one of the most prolific congresses in the industry. PHASE II worked with members of the client teams involved in each trial (investigators, statisticians, medical research associates, and trial clinical monitors) to develop abstracts for the client and once these had been accepted by the meeting organizers, PHASE II helped the client teams to prepare all materials required, including posters for display onsite and reprints for delegates to take away. All medical writing support adhered to Good Publication Practice 2 (GPP2) guidelines and was fully disclosed.

Client Testimonial

As a member of the Boehringer Ingelheim Global Medical Affairs team, I worked with several members of the PHASE II team in order to prepare congress abstracts, posters and slide presentations in advance of the launch of our diabetes drug linagliptin in 2011.  The PHASE II team were highly responsive and professional in their approach at all times and played a vital role in ensuring that the presentation of our pivotal results for linagliptin at the ADA 2010 meeting went smoothly.  The input from PHASE II helped the Boehringer Ingelheim team to ensure that all of the materials we presented were visually consistent and well-designed for ease of reference by meeting attendees, while communicating our key findings with clarity and impact. I would recommend the PHASE II team for their scientific expertise, full commitment to the quality of the work undertaken and their medical communications abilities.

Dr. Maximilian von Eynatten
TA Metabolism, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG

Challenge: The client had created a technologically advanced device for the administration of the growth hormone that successfully differentiated them from their competitors. The device tracks the patients’ usage, reminds the patient when to use it, as well as masks the needle discreetly to make the regular procedure far less traumatic for the user.

This then needed to be promoted so that overall awareness was raised.

Solution: A sales aid and promotional posters that effectively convey the clients’ points of difference. The benefits were communicated for both the patients and the Doctors and the materials were designed to appeal to both audiences.

Challenge: To increase awareness worldwide of the condition amongst HCPs and patients.

Solution: Materials were created to promote the awareness day campaign. Posters containing powerful messages on the subject were devised and an important consideration was to ensure that the copy used could be easily translated into multiple languages.

As these posters were to be produced worldwide, some detailed guidelines were drawn up to ensure uniformity across all materials in the form of the Communication Kit.

All the collateral was aimed at directing people to the psoriasis website where information was available on what treatment they could get and where and expert interviews that relayed valuable insights to patients.

As part of the work undertaken, we produced a video – another channel to increase awareness of the day.