I was talking to a friend who is the Market Access Director for a small biopharmaceutical company that is close to filing an NDA for a first-to-market product in a rare disease with a high level of unmet need. It was exciting to hear him present the drug’s promising clinical trial results–I’m so excited for all the patients who could benefit from this drug! My friend seemed equally as excited.

Then, I asked him, “Will you have any competition?” He confidently responded that their product would be the first and would be followed by 3 other products, but not for at least another 6 months. This scenario sounded like a rerun of my market access experiences in long-acting injectable antipsychotics, hepatitis C drugs, and immunotherapies in oncology. 

Sure, he may avoid market pressures for the first 6 months, but what then? Once the competitors start marching in, payers will view his product and all of his competitors’ products as the same, and will engage in a price war in a race to the bottom. This will not only pose a blow to his organization, but contribute to the gross-to-net bubble problem (discussed in a previous blog) which increases overall health care costs for the nation.

That’s why it’s important to keep an eye on the rear view mirror. Doing so enables market access strategists to condition the market in their favor for situations foreseen in the near future. The rear view mirror should give information about the competition’s product profile and product journey. The driver (market access strategist) would then study the rear view mirror to identify opportunities and act on them appropriately.

In my friend’s example, the competitors have a high incidence of acute kidney injury, which is already a significant concern for this patient population. Fortunately, his drug had no reported incidence of acute kidney injury. Great…now we were getting somewhere. 

It’s time to make big strides and turn heads–let’s go.