Inizio Engage: Elevating healthcare product launches through smart data

Inizio Engage, a life science consulting firm, is aiming to address this challenge through its data-driven and evidence-based methodology.

During a presentation at Reuters Pharma USA, Mike Stout, president, US commercial, and Sese Abhulimen, president, global decision optimization, outlined how the company is focused on optimizing brands and accelerating impact using data.

“We want to act as a strategic partner rather than a transactional vendor just trying to raise the price and sell you something. It’s about moving away from that old school arrangement where a contract sales organization needs someone in the field for x amount of time,” Stout told Bio Pharma Reporter.

“We want to adopt a strategic approach to determine the opportunity, how to employ the multiple solutions and assessing how to drive execution. At the end of the day, it’s about helping brands hit their targets to avoid the pitfalls identified by Deloitte.”

Outlining how the company collaborates with brands, Stout explains that it takes raw ‘industry standard’ data and converts it into smart data.

"As soon as a program launches, we gather incremental new data, examining factors such as the timing of treatment delivery throughout the day. From the standpoint of patient solutions, we analyze the onboarding process, determining optimal times and days that yield higher conversion rates for patients initiating therapy,” Stout added.

“From there, we’re able to understand physician engagement, patient activities and medical science liaisons. This data is then fed into our analytic platforms to make the launch successful.”

While Abhulimen acknowledges that everybody can capture this data – ‘how you translate that data to become smarter is what is key’.

“Let's say we have three brand launches today, each with a patient solutions program aimed at guiding patients on how to properly administer the products, typically through nurse-led training sessions. Now, everyone gathers data on these training sessions, but the crucial question is: what do you do with that data?” he said.

"Consider this scenario: through data analysis, we discover that between 1pm and 4pm is the optimal time for nurses to conduct these training sessions, as they achieve the highest success rates in patient education during these hours compared to earlier in the day.

“Furthermore, we find that patients trained during this time frame not only initiate therapy more promptly but also exhibit greater adherence to their treatment regimen. This insight is powerful information.”

After this data has been captured, companies are better equipped to integrate a health equity perspective​, Abhulimen explained.

“Providers can examine whether patients participating in their programs disproportionately come from specific zip codes characterized by certain socioeconomic factors, such as income levels, cost of living challenges, or ethnic demographics. By analyzing these factors, they can better understand and address potential disparities in access to healthcare services

“All of these determinants can impact the success of a launch, in terms of how you tweak and refine your patient solutions program. Everyone is capturing data, but it’s really about how you leverage it.”

Despite the rise in data accessibility, many in the industry readily acknowledge the hurdles in extracting meaningful value from this wealth of information.

For example, during a keynote speech at Pharma USA, Maya Martinez-Davis​, president, US commercial at GSK, admitted that despite having vast amounts of data on their platform, usability remains an issue.

“Many wonder, can these solutions truly be implemented? The recurring sentiment I encounter is not necessarily that the solutions are too complex, but rather a scepticism born from hearing promises without seeing tangible results. That's the feedback I'm receiving from our clients,” added.

For Stout, the size of a company and where they are in terms of their life cycle is also important to consider, as large organizations such as GSK already have substantial teams trying to work on this.

“They are probably less receptive up front, but when they understand the methodology, they become more receptive. So it takes time, whereas smaller organizations don't have the resources to do this, so they look to Inizio for help.”

Ultimately, both Stout and Abhulimen stress that Inizio Engage wants to forge long-term partnerships with clients – ‘moving away transactional from contract sales organization arrangements to integrated partnerships and utilizing data based on the market opportunity and trends’.

“If I say the forecast is going to be plus or minus 5% - I want to stick with you to prove you can do it. We don’t just build the forecast and throw is across the fence and say goodbye, go and achieve it,” Abhulimen said.

“We don’t just want to fill a gap. If we're an integrated partner and we're successful, we're going to be there for a long time.”