[ Oncology & Specialty Biologics ]

Decoding physician and patient behavior to build successful commercialization strategies

Opportunities and Challenges

lab Oncologics and biologics are the new frontiers in drug discovery and development. Over one-third of the 2,500 drugs in development in 2010 were cancer-related.* This promising avenue of innovation presents commercialization challenges as the pendulum swings from pills and generalist sales reps to infusion-based therapies promoted by clinical specialists. Biologics don't even immunize marketers from the threat of generics, with bio-similars displacing branded therapies in markets where regulatory authorities consider value as well as efficacy and safety criteria. The sales and marketing paradigm is catching up with changes in the treatment paradigm.

Biopharma companies face significant data blind spots as they bring new oncologics and biologics to market. Secondary prescriber data are incomplete and often non-existent in some markets and specialty distribution channels. The received wisdom around drug adoption and treatment decision-making is often out-of-date, requiring fresh, customized and actionable insights.

Knowledge Networks fills this information gap through our customized insights into oncology and specialty regimen choices. For more than ten years, we have worked with biopharma companies and leading treatment centers to decode the behavior and motivations of treaters, patients and other stakeholders like caregivers and specialty pharmacists. Our research has informed new product launch strategies, brand re-positionings and even public policy decisions. KN draws on state of the art analytics, truly representative panels and breakthrough techniques to compose a picture of the marketplace for our clients.

Analytics

KN advises infusing our solutions with cutting edge analytics that provide a high degree of management focus.

Choice modeling helps biopharma companies understand the impact of different clinical endpoints on adoption rates, both for their own products and for new competitive entrants.
Segmentation guides portfolio management decisions, from targeting and messaging to sales force management.
Brand equity modeling does more than monitor the health of brands; it offers prescriptive insights that help the brand live up to its positioning aspirations.
Decision tree analysis decodes the treatment decisions through multiple lines of therapy, helping clients identify pivot points in the treatment algorithm of various segments.

Research Techniques & Tools

KN uses a range of innovative techniques to capture data that are less prone to mis-estimation or recall error.

MD-DIARY® is a proprietary framework for patient chart studies, ideal for understanding share and switching behavior. The resultant data can fuel segmentation and choice modeling.
KN's QuantM smartphone surveys capture in-the-moment insights that can complement patient chart studies with specific probes around recent treater-patient interactions, shedding light on compliance, education and message recall.

Representative Panels

Knowledge Networks has two primary panels to support surveys.

The Physicians Consulting Network (PCN®) is ideal for engaging oncologists and other high value specialists. PCN also offers access to thousands of pharmacists and nurses who play an important role in the delivery of biologic therapies. KN can optimize client target lists by matching to commercially available sources. We also undertake custom recruitment to bolster sample sizes for hard-to-reach health care professionals.

KnowledgePanel® is our uniquely representative, probability-based online panel that contains thousands of current cancer sufferers, survivors and caretakers of patients. KN can reach large sample sizes for low prevalence conditions by augmenting KnowledgePanel® sample with respondents from non-probability opt-in panels. These blended samples retain a high level of accuracy through the use of KN Calibration that calibrates data from non-probability sources using benchmarks from our highly accurate KnowledgePanel.

Oncology Track Record: Sub-specialties and Conditions

KN has conducted 16,000 oncologist interviews and 18,000 patient chart analyses in the past five years, spanning every oncology treating sub-specialty and a host of solid and non-solid tumor types.

Tumor Types	Audiences
Breast • CRC • Head & neck • Lung • MCL • Multiple myeloma • MDS • NHL • Ovarian • Prostate • RCC • Soft tissue sarcoma	GYN ONCs • HEM ONCs • MED ONCs • ONC RNs • PED ONCs • RAD ONCs • Surgical ONCs

Oncology Case Studies

Prescriber segmentation to inform the management of an oncology portfolio with new and in-line treatments
Audit of multiple myeloma patient charts using KN's proprietary MD-DIARY® approach in order to determine accurate market share
Choice modeling to guide the defensive strategy for a market leader facing a new competitor in oncology category
Identification of physicians' treatment decision criteria for non small cell lung cancer via KN's proprietary MD-DIARY approach
Advice on brand re-positioning strategies through brand equity analysis for a leading cancer treatment provider
QuantM smartphone survey to capture in-the-moment interactions and decision making dynamics between oncologists and patients when deciding to move to second line treatment

*Source: Adis R&D Insight Database and PhRMA