ZEST insights

As budgets get smaller and pharmaceutical companies get more competitive, we are constantly striving to find different ways to market new therapies. Some companies are attempting to secure doctor and patient groups even before their therapy has received approval. 

The latest company to do this is GlaxoSmithKline. Recently recruiting via the radio for a clinical trial, they required patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis who had not previously taken biologicals. And in doing so, taking potential patients away from approved drugs on the market such as MabThera RA, Humira and Enbrel.  

Pre-marketing activities such as early access, product familiarization and compassionate access programs are becoming more and more important when planning for a new product launch. These are an effective way for doctors to start gaining experience with the drug as well as capturing patients, who will usually stay on the therapy once PBS approval has been given. 

Although this has been going on in clinical trials with terminal patients (eg cancer patients), will we start seeing more of this in chronic conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm by Jasmyn Real and is filed in the category Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.