Lundbeck Speeds Biopharma Content Review and Approval with Modernized Claims Management

Your content made it through multiple rounds of revisions and a matrix of approvals at your biopharmaceutical company. But your next stop at claims review can send you right back into the revisions loop. Despite your best efforts to keep up with current claim references, the review process is almost always unpredictable.

Sabrina DeYoung, left, senior manager, approval process, commercial operations, and Nicole Shea, right, director, commercial operations, Lundbeck.

Moving to a modernized claims review process can add predictability into the process and keep your timelines intact. Your team can access standardized claims language and work with transparency and accurate documentation. Along the way, you’ll build stronger and more collaborative internal relationships. And if you’re thinking of implementing modular content, streamlining claims review is an important foundational step.

At Lundbeck, we found all that and more after modernizing our claims management process with Veeva Vault PromoMats. A recent acquisition and a new product launch — all within two months — revealed the need to improve our claims management system. Merging companies while supplying marketing and sales teams with approved new product content was challenging. Knowing that we didn’t want to repeat that experience, we set out to adopt a digital claims review and approval process.

Build a path to modernized claims management

The team at Lundbeck now uses a streamlined process that automatically links claims to references in our claims library. With our new claims process, we have created foundational workflows, scalability, and most importantly, stakeholder trust. Here are some recommendations on how to get started:

• Start small: Stick with one brand as your pilot. This approach will give people time to get used to the system and limit the number of unique issues that can stall adoption. Choose a project with measurable KPIs so you can quantify your success and demonstrate the value of your new system early on.
• Add milestones to your timeline: With each milestone, participants know they’ll have a moment to pause the process briefly and provide feedback or make adjustments.
• Onboard with claims training: Provide reviewers, marketers, and agencies with a clear understanding of claims definitions and the associated regulations. For example, are your claims typically an efficacy statement to drive the product forward, or are you including every safety statement for core claims?
• Assign a single point of contact: Establish a workflow that centers on a single point of contact — a person who owns the process. They’ll serve as the Veeva partner who manages requests and ensures the discipline of your new process. All questions go to this person who connects teams to solve issues.
• Establish a governance team: When you bring together decision-makers early in the process, your ability to make quick decisions increases. Their involvement will keep leaders informed and help with buy-in.

Stakeholders can make or break the claims management process

From our perspective, adding a digital claims management approach was essential to reducing time to market. But from the perspective of a reviewer, it upended their process. With a digital system, they need to be comfortable making decisions without all the context they’re used to. For some reviewers, it’s a big ask and a legitimate reason to resist a new process. Understandably, adoption can stall if all your stakeholders aren’t aware of how modernizing claims will benefit them personally.

Therefore, we opened up the conversation with stakeholders early in the process to surface their concerns. With this proactive approach, we can create solutions that matter to each stakeholder and establish a single source of truth that supports consistent messaging.

And it’s easy to see how it improves their workflow. This new process allows a reviewer to trust that a linked claim has been reviewed and approved. Marketing teams will be able to work quicker and save costs with outside agencies because the language they’re choosing will most likely make it through medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review the first time around. For example, we can implement match text variations (MTVs) in Vault PromoMats that display claims wording in multiple ways while carrying the same approved sentiment or meaning. This capability provides more creative space for the marketing team while they stay within the bounds of approved content.

Optimize claims management as you grow

The implementation process opened many doors for collaboration throughout our organization. We decided to keep those stakeholders connected as we maintain and grow our digital approach to claims management. These conversations ensure our decision-making process is transparent as we add or delete claims from the library. And the more you involve your stakeholders, the greater the likelihood they’ll become ambassadors of the process.

We found the best way to maintain connections is through a series of regular meetings that bring together representatives from each stakeholder group on a routine basis.

• Weekly claims meetings: In these one-hour meetings, we discuss, review, and approve specific claims, mass claims, and variations.
• Weekly flash reports: After each claims meeting, we provide agencies and marketers with the complete list of approved claims to keep them up-to-date.
• Twice-weekly MLR meetings: The frequency of these meetings helps us stay on top of changes and keep lines of communication open between our team and the review team.

While a modernized claims review process doesn’t replace compliance review, it does make the review path more predictable and transparent. With Veeva Vault PromoMats we’ve created a workflow that benefits everyone in the review cycle. And we’ve connected subject matter experts across the organization. We’re moving content quicker to market and can scale anytime we need to meet new growth initiatives and product releases.

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