Accelerating Global Market Access in Rare Diseases Through Integrated Data and CRM

A commercial-stage biotech company focusing on rare and serious diseases launched its first commercialized product in 2021.

The global strategic operations and analytics director shares how having an in-depth understanding of the ecosystem surrounding the drug through integrated customer reference data was critical to accelerating market access.

Increasing efficiency and expanding customer reach

Estimates indicate that up to 30 million people live with a rare disease in the European Union. Yet pharma companies trying to deliver effective treatments for rare diseases are searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Before the launch, medical science liaisons (MSLs) must engage the right experts to shape their medical strategy. After launch, field teams need help accessing relevant HCPs. With small patient populations, significant pressure exists to recoup drug development costs quickly.

Operational efficiency was critical for this biotech to optimize its resources and scale launch success globally. For this biotech, achieving operational efficiency meant increasing rep effectiveness in and out of the field and expanding visibility and access to the right HCPs.

The company launched its product in the United States using a legacy CRM and data provider. Despite successfully launching in the US, the company wanted more from its existing solutions to scale and launch globally. Multiple logins with different vendors, manual data transfer processes, and administrative work became bottlenecks to bringing its drug to market faster.

In addition, the company required access to as much customer and patient information as possible. With its impending launch in Europe, regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prevent the company from gaining complete granular insights about its customers and patients.

A well-oiled machine for field execution

The company needed to operate as a well-oiled commercial machine to sustain its growth and expansion into more markets. Switching to Veeva OpenData and Veeva CRM Suite enabled agility and resulted in a better user experience for its commercial operations and field teams. The global strategic operations and analytics director explains, “The Veeva products connect together seamlessly. With Veeva OpenData, the speed at which data change requests (DCRs) go through is phenomenal. All DCRs take less than 24 hours to resolve.”

Its migration process went smoothly, with up to 100% data match rate in some markets. The team kept its historical activity and segmentation data and continued business as usual, avoiding further disruptions. The global strategic operations and analytics director recalls, “Moving to Veeva OpenData went very smoothly. As teams instantly recognized all their customer lists in the new system, there was no break in planning or disruption to the work they were doing.”

The company also chose Veeva OpenData because its pricing model was adapted for small and medium pharma companies, helping them operate more cost-effectively, especially with their limited infrastructure and budget.

“Veeva OpenData doesn’t just focus on prescribing HCP and hospital nurses. It’s far broader. And we wanted an offering that allowed us to do that early market access work in the countries we haven’t launched. Having that complete healthcare ecosystem in one database enables us to cover that element.” – Director of Global Strategic Operations and Analytics

Gaining access to global markets

Through Veeva OpenData, the company gained access to the complete healthcare ecosystem, going beyond prescribing HCPs and allowing teams to accelerate early market access work in countries before launch.

For example, the company extended its reach from key opinion leaders (KOLs) to other customers. They also identified new market access roles in key markets to support their pre-launch activities in Spain, Benelux, and Nordic countries.

Additionally, the company benefits from comprehensive email data, giving it more access to hard-to-reach customers and enabling its teams to build a consent database.

Emerging biotech needs to look beyond CRM to use data to its full potential. Traditionally, most would assume that only the field force would benefit from customer reference data following a launch. This data could help the whole organization in many ways. Medical, commercial, market access, compliance, and senior management teams use the data from Veeva OpenData to hit the ground running before, during, and after launch, improving collaboration to live through its mission of delivering extraordinary medicines that help their patients live normal lives.