How ANI Pharmaceuticals Launched New Rare Disease Product in Under 90 Days
Reaching and engaging healthcare professionals (HCPs) who serve niche patient populations — such as specific autoimmune and inflammatory conditions — can be challenging. Yet, despite these complexities, ANI Pharmaceuticals delivered its FDA-approved Purified Cortrophin® Gel in less than three months with limited resources.
The need for product launch speed in rare diseases
After completing its supplemental new drug application (sNDA) filing, ANI received a PDUFA date more quickly than the team anticipated. It had to accelerate its commercialization efforts and drive precision engagement.
“We stood up a full commercial launch in about 75 days,” said Bob Acropolis, senior director of operations and analytics at ANI. “Having an integrated suite of commercial solutions helped streamline the entire process.”
Integrated analytics and unified data insights in hours
Mike Rifflard, VP of operations at ANI, helped deliver this major launch on a tight timeline with a talented but lean team. One of the first steps was to help his team understand the patient journey with Veeva Compass.
Rifflard also credits Veeva Commercial Cloud for helping them launch quickly and optimize sales territory KPIs.
“Veeva’s integrated solutions allowed us to execute faster and access insights quicker than if we had used a more traditional, separate application approach,” Rifflard said. Having integrated solutions meant that Rifflard and his team avoided the burdensome process of pulling insights from disparate systems.
Integrated analytics with Veeva Nitro also meant that Rifflard could quickly change the plan as things evolved. Field engagement metrics fed directly to leadership dashboards made it easy to keep a pulse on progress. As a result, ANI maintained high levels of engagement with target HCPs and achieved a 30% click-through rate on all HCP email communications.
Six months after launch, the team revisited KPIs, and their hypotheses about the market issues with territory alignment became evident. However, insights from Veeva Nitro integrated with Align for territory planning provided re-aligned territories and maps in just two weeks.
Minimizing complexity and adding value
Having an industry-specific Veeva CRM and master data management (MDM) platform ready from Day One meant ANI could focus on preparing its sales team for launch. “In the past, when I’ve used a third-party or different MDM platform to set up a CRM, the integration became very complex. Getting everything to work together was a tremendous effort, and it often didn’t go right the first time,” shared Rifflard.
Hybrid field teams need their CRM to provide a collaborative platform for monitoring engagements across the organization. Veeva CRM provides the ANI field team with a single view of each HCP, including engagement with medical and sales reps and participation in scientific congresses and social media. Field teams also can access information about which doctors visit high-risk patients and what those HCPs tend to prescribe.
“Having this information accessible within the CRM system facilitates more thoughtful and helpful conversations with providers and has helped facilitate the sales teams’ success and high click-through email rates,” Acropolis said.
Sustaining post-launch success
Reflecting on a speedy but successful launch, the team looks forward to taking more time to pull insights from the rich data they can access and optimize the patient journey.
“Getting a whole commercial business solution up and running in two and a half months seems impossible, but it’s amazing what you can do if you get the right people and partners in place.” Mike Rifflard, Vice President Operations, ANI Pharmaceuticals
Learn more about creating an effective launch plan for commercializing a new rare disease product.