• A top 50 global pharma company wanted to know how they could reach $500MM US peak sales for a Phase 2/3 asset treating latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI)
• In addition, they sought advice on how to re-frame the large and ill-defined literature prevalence to a more realistically addressable number of patients

• Primary qualitative and quantitative market research (conjoint design) with physicians across 6 specialties (n=350), and payers (n=50)
• Market, revenue forecast, and business case (NPV) analysis
  Analytically combined conjoint preferences across physicians and payers to represent the full buying process; identified a realistic path to $500MM

• We identified the most attractive patient segments
• Mapped gatekeepers and high prescribing physician segments over time
• Identified opportunities to increase product demand
• Quantified MD demand across various product profile scenarios
• Integrated MD demand with payer utilization management to forecast uptake and prioritize the key obstacles…
• …and recommended actionable steps to overcome those obstacles

• A small public preclinical biotech client involved in a mass market desired to understand payer perceptions of current treatments, receptivity to a novel treatment (Product X), and justifiable pricing under two clinical scenarios: a symptomatic drug vs a disease modifying drug
• In addition, they sought to evaluate likely formulary placement and prior auth criteria, identify opportunities for price optimization, and identify meaningful endpoints for clinical and HEOR messaging

• Qualitative market research with influential US payer decision-makers
• Clarified key aspects of the current landscape (drivers of the coverage decision, P&T review process, utilization management)
• Obtained feedback on the blinded TPP (differentiation, impact of various data elements, and thoughts on justifiable pricing levels, and likely controls (prior auth, step edits, etc.) at different price thresholds
• Summarized the findings into 3 paradigms with varying pricing power

• Quickly recruited a panel of 10 influential US payers spanning a range of managed care plan types (both commercial and government) and sizes
• Segmented payers into 3 attitudinal groups based on perceived roles of drugs vs surgery
• Obtained feedback on the Product X TPP, including differentiation vs the standard of care and justifiable price range
• Tested options to frame the class in the payer’s mind relative to inexpensive OTCs and the expensive end game (surgery)
• Analyzed the threshold of evidence expected by payers to reach the stretch positioning of being a prophylactic therapy
• Summarized the findings into 3 product paradigms with varying pricing power; identified key success factors for each

A small biotech company with a novel phase 3 asset desired a full slate of market feedback across physicians and payers (in the US) and Health Technology Assessment entities (HTAs; in the EU5) to help guide launch planning. Aquest planned out and executed an aggressive series of 5 inter-related primary market research assessments in a 2 month period, including quantitative US demand studies focused on the impact of payer utilization controls on physician and patient behavior, and how this translates to share uptake. In addition, we conducted a qualitative EU assessment (executed in collaboration with Aquest’s UK affiliate) focused on answering the go/ no-go decision in Europe by benchmarking pricing and coverage expectations (for a set of analogs and the profile of interest) and quantifying how these would translate to a revenue projection. Armed with this data, the client was able to make an informed decision regarding further EU investment as well as prepare for a successful US launch.

A public biotech commissioned Aquest to help determine how to most efficiently develop a compelling payer case for a phase 2 asset in the context of the remaining clinical trial work. They were considering whether to integrate utilization management and pharmacoeconomic data collection in phase 2b/3 studies or whether to conduct a separate, phase 4 “real world” trial for this purpose. Aquest conducted interviews with internal and external stakeholders and used this guidance to develop a set of decision analysis criteria that balanced time to market, budget constraints, clinical and regulatory risk, and a rapidly changing competitive landscape.