achieveing global launch excellence

patent life. However, because of particularmarket issues, maintaining a fully alignedglobal approach can be challenging.”

Ken Ribotsky, president and CEO of TheCore Nation, says at its core a global productlaunch is actually a series of individual mini-launches that are specific to each market.

“A global launch involves navigating atremendous number of nuances: different peo-ple, languages, and cultures; different pre-scribing behaviors; different levels of knowl-edge among patients; different laws,regulatory requirements, and healthcare cov-erage,” he says. “So in my mind, a globalproduct launch is an endeavor in which onemust consider and address all of these nuances,effectively engaging diverse audiences with abrand that resonates, is memorable, and moti-vates people worldwide to make a change ortake action.”

Breaking it down further, Mr. Star says thebare bones of a global launch might consist ofhaving a shared global brand name and visual

Taren Grom

“Some clients take a centralized approach,which adopts a worldwide market positionthat rallies around a brand offering that res-onates with the largest percentage of the tar-geted population from market to market,” hesays. “Other clients prefer to defer more to thedemands of local market forces. The trend inrecent years has been for global marketingleaders to assume more and more responsibil-ity for driving the brand into markets. Thistrend skews toward global launches that areanchored by points of commonality.”

Emma Sergeant, managing director globalbusiness at Ogilvy CommonHealth World-wide, says the key message and launch cam-paign strategy are driven from the global teamacross the communication channels.

“How the regulatory bodies approve thebrand for launch and the label indication willdefine the operational roll out,” she says. “Inrecent years there has been a much strongerdrive to maintain one brand name to allow eq-uity to be developed for the brand during its

he details of what comprise aglobal launch vary dependingupon who is doing the defin-ing, but experts can agree that

the launch environment is becoming morechallenging. And with the value of the globalpharmaceutical market expected to grow 5%to 7% in 2011, according to IMS Health, theincentive to reach multiple markets is enoughto have global brand teams rallying around acommon goal, whether it’s a true worldwideapproach or a series of mini launches.

“Global launches tend to require complexcoordination across a broad functional span,”says Gene Guselli, co-founder, president, andCEO of InfoMedics. “These can run from thebasic general organization of traditional devel-opment and commercialization activities,often loosely coordinated and not necessarilydriven by global teams with established au-thority, to highly structured, organized, andoftentimes well-financed global leadershipwith clear and real authority. It is importantto understand the precise characteristics ofeach global organization before making anyassumptions about the effort required.”

Larry Star, chairman and CEO of Harrisonand Star, agrees that the corporate culture ofthe company influences the launch strategy.

T

AchievingGlobal Launch

EXCELLENCE

Defining what comprises a global launch is almostas complex as executing a global launch strategy.{ }

“ The process of developing a globalbrand requires the genuine involvementof the whole organization. ”

PHIL DESCHAMPS / GSW Worldwide

28 January 2011 � PharmaVOICEPDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011

Global Launch

Global Launch Experts Define Global

PHIL DESCHAMPS, GSW Worldwide

A global launch is any launch that targets more

than one market simultaneously and where it is

prospectively determined that a brand can

share a core marketing idea.

GENE GUSELLI, InfoMedics

The most general definition of a global launch

would be when a pharmaceutical company has

a product that it intends to introduce into

multiple markets.

KEN RIBOTSKY, The Core Nation

Global means pertaining to the world, and at its

most basic definition, a global product launch

can be defined as increasing awareness of a

new product in the majority of key international

markets to ultimately achieve sales results and

help the greatest number of patients

worldwide.

EMMA SARGEANT,

Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide

For the majority of pharma companies, a global

launch involves developing a central strategy,

brand essence, and proposition.

LARRY STAR, Harrison and Star

Ultimately, a global product launch is defined

by the client and is a direct reflection of the

client’s operating philosophy.

AL TOPIN, Topin & Associates

A global product launch involves uniting

multiple geographic markets with common

elements and objectives — product name,

brand identity, positioning, and messaging —

to leverage media channels, publications, and

medical congresses, which continue to become

increasingly global.

“ Each member of the global teamneeds an opportunity to have his orher voice heard, and feel that his orher opinions are considered whendevising the ultimate strategy. ”

LARRY STAR / Harrison and Star

“ Often, the foundation for asuccessful global launch is noteasily visible but occurs behindthe scenes. ”

AL TOPIN / Topin & Associates

identifiers, such as logo, color palette, icon,etc., but at the other end of the continuum,clients might embrace these minimal ele-ments, while demanding continuity acrosscontinents in terms of the brand’s positioningplatform, core messages, and brand identity.

“Brand teams may also require a commonset of go-to-market strategies and a singleglobal launch campaign that would use thesame core creative in each market allowing foronly minor modifications to meet local regula-tory and cultural dictates,” Mr. Star continues.

According to IMS, launches, even the bestones, are not doing as well as those in previousyears in terms of early market share, and com-panies are acknowledging, but not yet consis-tently responding to, the new demands of thechanging launch environment.

Al Topin, president of Topin & Associates,also believes it’s more difficult today for mar-keters to execute any product launch becausethe challenges are greater, the audiences areblending, costs are higher, customers have be-come more jaded, and the risks have grown.

Global Launch Success“Internationally, companies are beginning

to gather payer insights much sooner, in timeto genuinely influence development of thelaunch value proposition, although rarely be-fore Phase III,” says Chris Nickum, VP andglobal practice leader, commercial effective-ness, at IMS Health Management Consulting.“In some cases, successful organizations havedriven earlier country-level stakeholder en-gagement and examples exist where this hasbeen vital to launch performance in that coun-try. However, it is still unusual to devote sig-nificant resources to stakeholder managementas early as a year in advance.

“There’s an ongoing shift in power amongstakeholders, with decreasing influence fromprescribers,” Mr. Nickum continues. “Allstakeholders have expanded the criteria bywhich they assess new products, generatingrequirements for stronger and broader levelsof evidence. To engage these stakeholders,companies are expanding their business func-tions, which are, in many cases, stretching ex-isting organizational operations.”

Mr. Star believes the most important factorin a successful global launch is to have an or-ganization, and a team leader, that gathers in-

29PharmaVOICE � January 2011PDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011

Global Launch

starts with making sure the company is prop-erly aligned and organized for the complexi-ties of global marketing.

“I have seen global brands that should havebeen blockbusters right out of the gate becomecompletely derailed because the organizationdid not have all of the required systems inplace, from manufacturing and supply chain,to securing market access, reimbursement,sales, and even customer service,” he says.“Proper planning and anticipating market-specific obstacles are crucial, but unfortunatelythe process can never be started early enough.The approach to global product launch plan-ning should be a holistic one, and it should in-tegrate all of the processes, systems, and capa-bilities so that they will converge and cover theentire life cycle of the brand.”

Another critical factor to global launchsuccess, according to Mr. Star, is the ability tolook at the market, the competition, and thecustomer’s brand and identify the one thingthat will differentiate the brand in a relevantway from the competition.

“Too often, companies base their strategyaround what they want to believe is a point ofproduct differentiation rather than what themarket dictates as a relevant differentiator ona global scale,” he says.

Another priority, Mr. Star says is developingand communicating a value proposition orunique selling proposition that is both relevantand compelling, and the best way to accom-plish that is by solving an identified problem.

“This is where things can get tricky becausea problem that physicians are experiencing inProvo, Utah, may be entirely different fromthe problems doctors are facing in Paris,France,” he says. “Another key to a successfulglobal launch is preparing the market, andwhat I mean by that is engaging opinion lead-ers and key stakeholders in such a way thatthey are completely on board before thelaunch. This also ties back to the developmentof the value proposition. It is much easier toachieve momentum with all stakeholderswhen there’s early buy-in from KOLs, patients,disease-state community members, and evenmore so now, regulators, and payers.”

Ms. Sergeant agrees that gaining local mar-ket input and buy-in to the global strategy willensure that the approach is embraced, adopted,and operationally resourced and supported.

“Ensuring the market is prepared appropri-ately within local regulatory requirements,which critically now involves developing a clearmarket access program, is key,” she says.

Often, the foundation for a successful globallaunch is not easily visible but occurs behindthe scenes, Mr. Topin says, and requires: a well-structured and defined global team chargedwith a specific and detailed planning process;clear and effective channels of team communi-

requires the genuine involvement of the wholeorganization. Global marketers need to be con-cerned about what the brand is going to standfor, i.e. positioning and brand hallmarks, andthe regional and local marketers need to be fo-cused on how that positioning is going to con-nect with the local audience.”

Mr. Guselli concurs that one of the keys tosuccess lies in the global launch team’s abilityto listen to and respond to the specific needsof the local market teams.

“Issues involving regulatory authorizationor approval, market access, reimbursement,pricing, etc., coupled with market and culturaldifferences, require significant flexibility in theglobal planning process,” he says.

Global launches are successful when thebrand stands on a consistent platform in thetarget markets.

“This usually means that the disease stateis treated in similar ways and the cultural sen-sitivities lend themselves to be able to ownthe same platform in each target market,” Mr.Deschamps says.

Mr. Ribotsky agrees that a global launch

sight, information, and critical local marketperspectives from all key constituents.

“Each member of the global team needs anopportunity to have his or her voice heard andfeel that his or her opinions are considered whendevising the ultimate strategy,” he says. “At theoutset of a global launch, disparate market rep-resentatives will naturally focus on the differ-ences between individual market dynamics.The key to a successful launch necessitates shift-ing this myopic perspective to a 20,000-footview of the brand that lets each player see theimportance of speaking to the benefits that arecommon in the majority of markets.”

Phil Deschamps, president and CEO ofGSW Worldwide, says global launch successrests with the company’s readiness to execute acomplex strategy — it has to be philosophicallyand actually structured to do a global launch.

“Global, regional, and local marketers needto have defined roles and accountability to theprocess or much of the synergy the organizationmay be looking for is lost in the redundancy ofroles,” he says. “This is not just a top-downissue. The process of developing a global brand

Executing a Successful Global Launch

IMS Health research has identified three recurring

themes that are common to every excellent launch and

that analysts believe will be the key to future launch

success.

1An Aligned and Prepared Organization

Misalignment can occur at the functional as well as the

geographic levels. Common goals, shared incentives,

and earlier launch preparation are essential. The

importance of organizational alignment has been

central to the findings of IMS launch excellence studies,

underscoring its pivotal role as a driver of success. At its

simplest level, alignment means that the various

functional and geographic elements of a company are

working together in harmony, with common goals, on

the launch. This may seem obvious and straightforward.

Yet both quantitative analysis and qualitative research

suggest that lack of real alignment for launches is very

common and achieving it is very difficult.

2A Powerful and Pertinent Value Proposition

Successful launches are powered by compelling

demonstrations of value, drawn from evidence

generated that addresses disparate stakeholder

needs. Gaining advocacy, approval, and market

access require a powerful and pertinent value

proposition that appeals to both regulators and

payers. This increasingly means meeting

dissimilar — and possibly contradictory —

needs. IMS research suggests that companies

are facing the growing dilemma of finding the

right balance between regulatory requirements

for trials versus payer expectations from trials as

well as trial investment (for the same label)

pre- and post-launch.

3Effective and Efficient Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder power shifts are acknowledged and

earlier engagement is growing, but new models

must address ability to influence widespread

product usage. Companies are well aware of

changes in the relative importance of

different stakeholders. But have they adjusted

their approach to development and

commercialization? Where are the genuinely new

models of effective and efficient stakeholder

management for launch? How have they fared?

30 January 2011 � PharmaVOICE

Source: Chris Nickum, IMS Health Management ConsultingFor more information, visit imshealth.com.

PDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011

Global Launch

“ It’s important to design and executea learning solution that works for diverse audiences and across diversemarkets. ”SHABNAM IRFANI / ClearPoint Learning System

cation that allow for geographic nuances andgive each participant a voice; and a plan for reg-ularly scheduled team meetings, includingface-to-face global team interactions.

“Structure and planning help to clarify eachteam member’s role and responsibility, andshould include a flexible launch timetable thatlists specific milestones, and incorporate a cleardecision-making process,” he says. “Establishedchannels of communication assure that eachteam member is up to speed and can contributeat each stage of the process. And at critical junc-tures, it’s important that team members stepaway from conference calls, get on a plane, andmeet each other face to face. While these meet-ings take extra time and add to the launch costs,they enhance clarity, accelerate decision mak-ing, and build team unity and understanding.It’s difficult to overemphasize the importance ofeffective communications. In fact, when talkingabout global launches, there should be no suchthing as overcommunicating.”

In addition to communication, ShabnamIrfani, director of learning solutions at Clear-Point Learning Systems, says training is vital.

“It’s important to design and execute alearning solution that works for diverse audi-ences and across diverse markets,” she says.“To accomplish this, training departmentsmust fully understand the global launch prod-uct plan and engage key stakeholders from thecommercial team to develop a training planthat meets the organization’s goals. A trainingplan should be comprehensive and includecritical dependencies, organizational objec-tives, and clear metrics around success at aminimum. Secondly, during the training de-sign and development process, criticalthought must be given to the treatment ofcontent and how it will address the varyingneeds and requirements of the global trainingaudience. Aside from language differences andlocalization needs, it is important to considerhow content matter varies regionally. For ex-ample, the reimbursement landscape variesfrom region to region, so the training in thisarea should be designed to support easy mod-ification. And finally, when a blended learningsolution with varied media choices is devel-oped, it is important that the media choice bematched to the content to avoid costly recre-ation of training materials.”

The Future of Going Global

According to our experts, there are severaltrends that will impact global launches in thenext five to 10 years, not the least of which areshifting payer control, emerging markets, andpressure from local markets.

“We can expect that the pressure to answerlocal customers’ needs is going to be greaterand greater,” Mr. Deschamps says. “Also, thestakeholders involved will proliferate. Manu-facturers need to focus on creating value fortheir customers rather than pushing a particu-lar message to their audience. We call this theshift from being an advertiser to being an ad-vocate for the disease state being served. Thatvalue needs to be clearly articulated to payers,physicians, healthcare professionals, advocacygroups, and government. Differentiating basedon message alone will not be enough; brandsand companies will need to focus on differenti-ating themselves based on the value and posi-tive outcomes they create for their customers.This will require healthcare marketing expert-ise that is in short supply on a global basis.”

Mr. Ribosky says marketers will be forced toshift their mindsets, largely because of the fi-nancial crises that are actively affecting — orlooming above — so many markets.

“Many of the bread-and-butter-drugs withsales of more than $30 billion that have fueled

“ At its core a global productlaunch is actually a series of individual mini-launches thatare specific to each market. ”

KEN RIBOTSKY / The Core Nation

“ Because of particular market issues,maintaining a fully aligned global approach can be challenging. ”

EMMA SERGEANT / Ogilvy CommonHealth

31PharmaVOICE � January 2011PDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011

“ Global launches tend to requirecomplex coordination across a broadfunctional span. ”

GENE GUSELLI / InfoMedics

“ There’s an ongoing shift inpower among stakeholders, withdecreasing influence from prescribers. ”

CHRIS NICKUM / IMS Health

32 January 2011 � PharmaVOICE

tinue to be a dynamic industry, and whenviewed on a global level, Mr. Topin sayschange is not just continual, but often seismic.

“Over the next decade, we should expect tosee communication channels and media con-tinuing to become even more global; govern-mental approval processes growing even moreunpredictable; regulatory bodies shadowingeach other’s decisions; growing regulation andapproval of biosimilars in various regions;continuing consolidation of large pharmamanufacturers; and expansion of cross-re-gional comarketing agreements.”

The result of all of this Mr. Topin says, willbe a difficult path for any global player.

“Both the incentives and the risks involvedwith launching brands on a global level haveincreased, local and regional competition hasgrown, and generic threats have impacted thelife expectancy of even the most successfulbrands,” he says. “Manufacturers continue tospread their risk with comarketing agree-ments, but the global launch process is im-pacted by the challenge of managing differingpersonalities, approaches, and perceptions ofresponsibilities. It’s the equivalent of manag-ing a group of type A personalities all playingtogether in the same sandbox.”

Mr. Star says a major trend will be the eval-uations of brands by customers to includemore factors than just the features and bene-fits of a drug.

“The service offering will be as critical to thesuccess of a drug as its brand attributes and ef-ficacy,” he says. “Because adherence to the drugregimen erodes over time and doctors have lesstime to closely monitor their patients’ compli-ance patterns — or lack thereof — service of-ferings that make it easier for patients to stickwith their treatment increases the chances ofsuccessful outcomes.”

Mr. Star says often the core element forsuccess lies in developing a relationship withthe patient.

Mr. Guselli believes there will be a contin-ued trend toward stronger, centralized coordi-nation and financial support from globalteams, who will be given increasing authorityto execute multi-country product launches.

“The global leaders who will rise to the topwill be those who discover the correct balancebetween global coordination and control, andrespect and empowerment of the local marketleaders,” he says. “I truly believe that thesepeople are the future leaders of the globalpharmaceutical industry.” PV

Global Launch

EXPERTS

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profits for so long are moving off patent, andwe’re not seeing the no-holds-barred type oflaunches that create or expand markets the waythey used to,” he says. “Marketers will be re-thinking their global launch strategies and en-tering high-potential, pharmerging markets

earlier, rather than at the tail end, which wasthe old paradigm. Me-too drugs have passedtheir shelf life, and progressively fewer drugswill be approved unless they can offer somenovel value.”

The pharmaceuticals business will con-

PHIL DESCHAMPS. President

and CEO, GSW Worldwide, an in-

Ventiv Health company, which is

one of the largest healthcare

companies in the world. For more

information, visit inventivhealth.com.

GENE GUSELLI. Co-Founder,

President, and CEO, InfoMedics

Inc., which works with

biopharmaceutical marketers to

break down walls that exist in health

communications and enable doctors and

patients to better communicate about a

treatment experience. For more

information, visit infomedics.com.

SHABNAM IRFANI. Director of

Learning Solutions, ClearPoint

Learning Systems, an interactive

health education company that

creates media-rich educational and train-

ing solutions supporting the needs of a

wide range of constituents across the

healthcare spectrum. For more information,

visit clearpointlearning.com.

CHRIS NICKUM. VP and Global

Practice Leader, Commercial Ef-

fectiveness, IMS Health

Management Consulting,

which provides market intelligence to the

pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in more than

100 countries. For more information, visit

imshealth.com.

KEN RIBOTSKY. President and CEO, The

Core Nation, a family of healthcare

marketing and medical communications

companies (Core-Create, Brandkarma, and

Alpha & Omega) that offers strategic, branding, and

creative consulting services. For more information,

visit thecorenation.com.

EMMA SERGEANT. Managing Director

Global Business, Ogilvy CommonHealth

Worldwide, is a global healthcare

communications network serving clients in

64 offices across 33 countries. For more information,

visit ogilvy.com.

LARRY STAR. Chairman and CEO, Harrison

and Star, a healthcare advertising and

communications agency providing a full

array of strategic and creative services for

pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic, and device

companies. For more information, visit hs-ideas.com.

AL TOPIN. President, Topin & Associates

Inc., an independent full-service,

medical marketing communications

company. For more information, visit

topin.com.


Dave EspenshadeSenior Vice President

· 610-832-2100


he UpsideLarry Star, chairman and CEO ofHarrison and Star, says the pri-mary advantage to a global

product launch is that drugs exist in a smallerworld than ever before.

“Doctors, whether practicing in Shanghaior Rio or Dallas, are beginning to converge interms of treatment approaches,” he says. “Peo-ple cross continents to participate in profes-sional society meetings so it’s good to have theconsistency in messaging and positioning.And of course, the Internet is a powerfultouch point for all brands regardless of thecategory. For these reasons, building a solidglobal foundation can be a vital element inbuilding awareness and adoption at launch.”

Ken Ribotsky, president and CEO of TheCore Nation, says the advantage of a globallaunch is that the brand can reach the great-est number of people possible, which means ithas greater potential for therapeutic and fi-nancial success.

“Marketers also gain valuable intelligence,including what the uptake drivers are in differ-ent parts of the world, all of which can helpthem down the road when they launch a futureproduct,” he says. “Marketers can also developor improve their core competencies, such as un-derstanding how reimbursement varies fromone country to another. Medical communitiesare global today, so companies can benefit fromhaving a constant and consistent brand pres-ence across all markets.”

Phil Deschamps, president and CEO ofGSW Worldwide, says the advantage of aglobal launch, once it has been determinedthat a brand can have an effective global posi-

even the largest corporations hesitate to dowhen the world economy is as shaky as it isright now. Companies also assume greaterrisk, and are far more exposed because successis going to be evaluated based on how well abrand does in individual markets, which isvery different from an average or aggregatedassessment that occurs in one large marketlike the United States. So if, for example, aglobal launch effort fails miserably in theUnited Kingdom, it’s going to be muchharder to hide that failure. And since compa-nies really only have a six-month window tomake their mark, the stakes are really high.”

For Emma Sergeant, managing directorglobal business at Ogilvy CommonHealthWorldwide, the advantages of consistency andefficiency — time, resources, and cost — canbe offset by several disadvantages, includingmissing some local market nuances and buy-in, not necessarily producing marketing cam-paigns that are adventurous and push theboundaries, and becoming too process-drivenand losing sight of innovative approaches.

Mr. Topin says the disadvantages or risksare also obvious but difficult to manage, suchas adjustments and compromises to accom-modate local/regional customs, medical pro-tocols, government approval processes, and re-imbursement that can potentially dilute theimpact of branding and messaging.

Furthermore, he says, a global launch re-quires additional time to build and coordinatea global effort vs. a single regional launch. Ad-ditionally, there is a risk of missing timely ap-provals in key markets, or facing differing in-dications and restrictive labeling in keymarkets.

Taren Grom

The PROS

Industry experts discuss the advantages/disadvantages of undertaking a global product launch.{ }

and CONSofGlobal Launches

tion, is the campaign develops brand equitymuch more quickly.

“It is more efficient to produce such a cam-paign and global, regional, and local market-ing resources can be streamlined,” he says.

The advantages of a global product launchare clear but can be elusive, says Al Topin, pres-ident of Topin & Associates. These include theimpact of a unified global branding and consis-tent messaging on multiple audiences, signifi-cant efficiencies and economies of unifiedbranding and communication, and potential topreempt competition in multiple markets.

The Downside“The primary disadvantage of a global prod-

uct launch is that the nuance that is importantto a local market can be lost because it mayhave to be sacrificed for the benefit of the globalbrand,” Mr. Star says. “This can cause somecompetitive disadvantage in that local market.It is not possible for a brand to be all things toall people so a global product launch runs therisk of losing local flavor.”

Mr. Deschamps says the only disadvantageis that a global campaign requires more coor-dination and that without real roles and re-sponsibilities, defined any advantages will notmaterialize.

Mr. Ribotsky says there is a misperceptionthat global product launches are going to beless expensive than market-by-market intro-ductions.

“A marketer’s focus should always be oncreating a bigger brand and not a cheaperlaunch,” he says. “Another downside is that aglobal launch requires more resources, which

T

January 2011 � PharmaVOICE

DIGITAL EDITION — BONUS CONTENT


rope,” he says. “Another misstep is relying toomuch on ‘the old bag of pharma marketingtricks,’ those tried-and-true channels or tacticsthat worked really well for years, but may notbe as effective in today’s environment. Mar-keters need to look at a multiple channels, de-termining which ones will be the most appro-priate to prepare and shape each market. I alsothink while the overall marketing strategy isdetermined by the home team, brand teamsneed to allow some flexibility for individualcountries to condition their markets, and per-haps even refine messaging so that it’s specificto individual market challenges. And whilemany pharma marketers spend a great deal oftime and resources on aligning external stake-holders, they overlook alignment of their in-ternal stakeholders. This often results in inter-nal confusion on positioning and the valueproposition. Everyone needs to be on board,from the CEO to the most junior employee.”

Mr. Deschamps explains that it’s impor-tant to remember that global sameness is notglobal marketing and branding.

“While clearly a brand needs to share aglobal position and branding hallmarks, thisdoes not mean the campaign or marketing ap-proach should be the same in each market,” hesays. “A brand has to share a visual and posi-tioning core but local marketers are the ex-perts at connecting that brand to their cus-tomers locally. Without the local

customization the global manufacturer isgoing to try to penetrate the market with ablunt object rather than an arrow point.”

Mr. Deschamps also warns that marketersshould avoid being global for the sake ofbeing global.

“Every situation is different and needs to beassessed as to whether a brand should be global,regional, or local,” he says. “Only when researchdetermines that the brand can have a globalmarketing platform should the global approachbe used. A great example of this is the ADHDmarket. In North America the market is muchmore developed than in Europe, so for brandstargeting this disease state there should be dif-ferent approaches in each of those regions.”

Lastly, Mr. Deschamps says marketers needto remember to make sure the global brandscan breathe.

“Most global organizations establish theglobal strategy for a brand and do not have themeans or the structure to gain real-time feed-back on the brands’ performance in the marketplace beyond market share,” he says. “In today’senvironment the opportunities for gaining in-sight into customers’ relationships with a brandis measured in minutes or days not years. Mostmanufacturers are more concerned that thelocal affiliates execute the ‘global’ campaignbut they also have to make sure the global cam-paign responds to local customer needs throughmicro message and campaign tweaking.”

Global Launch

Best PracticesGene Guselli, co-founder, president, and

CEO of InfoMedics, says at all costs compa-nies need to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.

“Also, it’s important to remember that theultimate success of the global plan will be de-pendent upon the enthusiasm and support pro-vided at the local level,” he says. “Therefore, theglobal leadership teams need to be ever-vigilantwhen it comes to making sure that local mar-ket personnel feel — and to some extent get —true ownership of the program.

“When they hear the term global launch,most people assume a single button getspushed somewhere at corporate headquartersand overnight a brand goes live across theglobe,” Mr. Guselli continues. “Nothingcould be further from the truth. In fact, inmost cases, even with well-conceived and exe-cuted strategies, it can take anywhere fromone to three years to truly execute a globallaunch. As such, success is highly dependentupon a strong communication structure andmonitoring and control systems that produceactionable information.”

Mr. Ribotsky agrees that the most disas-trous mistake is adopting a one-size-fits-allapproach.

“Just because something works well in theUnited States doesn’t mean that the same setof tools will create a similar reaction in Eu-

Key Global Market Dynamics

According to IMS Health, there are several

important trends that are expected to impact

the global market:

» Divergent growth rates expected for developed and pharmerging markets.

As countries recover from the global economic

crisis at different rates, there is growing

divergence in the pace of pharmaceutical

growth among major markets. The 17

pharmerging countries are forecast to grow at

a 15% to 17% rate in 2011, between $170

billion and $180 billion. Many of these markets

are benefiting from greater government

spending on healthcare and broader public

and private healthcare funding, which is driving

greater demand and access to medicines.

China, which is predicted to grow 25% to 27%

to more than $50 billion next year, is now the

world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.

Among major developed countries, Japan is

forecast to grow 5% to 7% in 2011, a year when

biennial price cuts will have little impact. The five

major European markets (Germany, France, Italy,

Spain, and the U.K.) collectively will grow at a 1%

to 3% pace, as will Canada. The

United States will remain the single largest

pharmaceutical market, with 3% to 5% growth

expected next year. Pharmaceutical sales in the

U.S. will reach $320 billion to $330 billion, up from

$310 billion forecast for this year, not including the

impact of off-invoice discounts or rebates.

» Peak years of patent expiries shift major therapiesto generic dominance. In 2011, products with

sales of more than $30 billion are expected to

face the prospect of generic competition in the

major developed markets. In the United States

alone, Lipitor, Plavix, Zyprexa, and Levaquin —

which together accounted for more than 93

million prescriptions dispensed in the past 12

months and generated over $17 billion in total

sales — likely will lose market exclusivity. The full

impact of patients shifting to lower-cost generic

alternatives for these products, as well as other

brands in their therapy classes, mostly will be felt in

2012, due to the timing and expected competitive

intensity among generic entrants.

» Broad measures applied by public and privatepayers to reduce growth in drug budgets.

Governments are pursuing an ongoing wave of

budgetary control mechanisms that target drug

spending as one way to restore fiscal balance.

Multiple markets will be impacted by these

measures in 2011. Prominent examples include

substantial reductions in the price of generics

relative to their branded counterparts in Spain

and in Canada, where generic pharmacy rebates

are expected to be eliminated; new price

negotiation requirements for brands launched in

Germany; and across-the-board price cuts for

branded products in Turkey and Greece. In the

United States, health plans are stepping up their

use of pre-authorizations and cost sharing

provisions in an effort to address rising healthcare

expenditures.

Source: IMS Health. For more information, visit imshealth.com.

PharmaVOICE � January 2011



January 2011 � PharmaVOICE


Ms. Sergeant says there are three things toavoid when launching a global brand: first,central development with limited market in-volvement; second, allowing local market’sinput to splinter a central strategy, losingbrand cohesiveness and resulting in multipleapproaches that are time-, resource- and rev-enue-intensive in a cost-constrained environ-ment; and third, poor expert engagement, re-sulting in potential lack of thought leadershipinvolvement and voice at launch.

Shabnam Irfani, director of learning solu-tions at ClearPoint Learning Systems, sayswhile some organizations have achieved afully integrated global product launch, oth-ers are beginning to isolate the areas inwhich a global approach can yield significantbenefits. Training and education is one ofthose areas.

“Through effective planning, collabora-tion, and the use of educational technologyand media, organizations can drive more con-sistent messaging and eliminate many of theredundant design activities that occur in re-gional silos today,” she says. “Failing to con-sider and actively address the traditional divi-sions between regions and departments wouldaffect a global launch negatively. Therefore, itis critical that training organizations havesolid communication and collaboration expe-rience between various departments.”

Key Indicators of SuccessAccording to Mr. Guselli, key performance

indicators for global launches need to be es-tablished and agreed upon before the globallaunch and not after the fact.

“This is important to ensure a consistentunderstanding of expectations and how per-formance will be measured,” he says. “Onceagain, a certain amount of flexibility is neces-sary to accommodate local market conditionsand measures of success.”

Mr. Deschamps says brand metrics need tobe expanded beyond market share.

“Brand equity is a more comprehensivemetric,” he says. “Companies should deter-mine what value they need to create in themarketplace to be successful. This should becustomized to each situation. A primary carebrand will require a different type of valuemetrics than a specialty biopharmaceutical.While it is difficult to determine how phar-maceutical manufacturers can participate inthe social media explosion, it is perfectly clearhow they can use it, inspect it, and use it as alistening post. Customers are talking aboutbrands 24/7, 365 days a year, so brand leaders

need to listen for the key trends to determinewhat insight will allow them to create valuefor their customers.

“I really think we need to go beyond theobvious performance-based metrics of pre-scription and payer data and find effectiveways to measure customer engagement acrossall audiences, whether they are prescribers,patients, or payers,” he continues. “With in-creasing regulatory restrictions, access tophysicians is going to get even tougher, so weneed to measure how successfully we are en-gaging these professionals through non-rep-delivered methods. We need more real-worldengagement to find out what customers arereally thinking. One of the newest key per-formance indicators (KPIs) is going to be thenumber of patients who begin a product-spe-cific discussion with their doctor. Another as-

pect to consider is that KPIs tend to be short-term and we need to look at our long-termimpact: what’s the value creation in the life ofyour brand? Another area that often goes over-looked is how well unbranded disease-statecommunications are working. Adherence isanother area that needs to be measured quan-titatively.”

Mr. Topin says beyond the standard meas-ures of growth and share, monitoring ongoingmessaging in key regions is critical because itbecomes an indicator of brand acceptance.

“Constant vigilance can help the brandteam to quickly act and modify messages toaccelerate growth,” he says. “Following aglobal launch, marketers should monitor howquickly a product is accepted in each market,then compare that with the resources allocatedto the market launch.” PV

Global Launch

EXPERTSPHIL DESCHAMPS. President

and CEO, GSW Worldwide, an in-

Ventiv Health company, one of

the largest healthcare compa-

nies in the world. For more information,

visit inventivhealth.com.

GENE GUSELLI. Co-Founder,

President, and CEO, InfoMedics

Inc., which works with

biopharmaceutical marketers to

break down walls that exist in health

communications and enable doctors and

patients to better communicate about a

treatment experience. For more

information, visit infomedics.com.

SHABNAM IRFANI. Director of

Learning Solutions, ClearPoint

Leanring Systems, interactive

health education company that

creates media-rich educational and train-

ing solutions supporting the needs of wide

range of constituents across the healthcare

spectrum. For more information, visit

clearpointlearning.com.

CHRIS NICKUM. VP and

Global Practice Leader,

Commercial Effectiveness,

IMS Health Management

Consulting, which provides market

intelligence to the pharmaceutical and

healthcare industries in more than 100

countries. For more information, visit

imshealth.com.

KEN RIBOTSKY. President and

CEO, The Core Nation, a family of

healthcare marketing and

medical communications

companies (Core-Create, Brandkarma, and

Alpha & Omega) that offers strategic,

branding, and creative consulting services.

For more information, visit

thecorenation.com.

EMMA SERGEANT. Managing

Director Global Business, Ogilvy

CommonHealth Worldwide, is a

global healthcare communications

network serving clients in 64 offices across 33

countries. For more information, visit

ogilvy.com.

LARRY STAR. Chairman and

CEO, Harrison and Star, a

healthcare advertising and

communications agency providing

an array of strategic and creative services for

pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic, and de-

vice companies. For more information, visit

hs-ideas.com.

AL TOPIN. President, Topin &

Associates Inc., an independent

full-service, medical marketing

communications company. For

more information, visit topin.com.


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