Revitalizing Mature Pharma Brands: 5 Winning Strategies

Picture this: You're a marketing executive for a pharmaceutical company, and you've just been handed a challenging assignment. Your task? To breathe new life into a mature product that's facing increasing competition. It's a scenario many of us in the pharma industry have encountered.

In this article, we'll dive into strategies that can help you not just maintain, but grow your market share. We'll explore how to adapt to new competitive pressures and evolving customer needs, turning potential threats into opportunities for innovation and growth.

Prioritizing patients for sustainable success

With an established product, your existing customer base is your greatest asset. We can achieve continued success by prioritizing patients and addressing their entire healthcare journey. Take inspiration from Pfizer's "This is living with cancer" program.¹ The program offered coordinated services with human care champions and an integrated digital tool to organize information, build communities, and track symptoms.

Strategy: Create partnerships with stakeholders to offer coordinated services that go beyond medication, fostering patient loyalty and improving overall health outcomes.

Evolving brand campaigns to inspire hope and action

Refreshing your brand's creative campaign can change the dialogue around the disease state and reignite interest in your product. Entresto's "Heart Failure meet Heart Success" campaign exemplifies this approach, empowering patients and HCPs to view heart failure not as a death sentence, but as a manageable condition with treatment options.²

Strategy: Develop campaigns that focus on patient empowerment and reframe disease narratives, moving beyond product features to inspire hope and action.

Exploring new formulations to address patient needs

Improving the customer experience through new formulations can breathe new life into mature products. For example, a citrate-free version of ixekizumab was developed to reduce injection site pain, directly addressing a key patient concern.³

Strategy: Invest in R&D to develop extended-release versions, combination therapies, or more convenient delivery methods that address unmet patient needs. These strategies may help extend market exclusivity.

Leveraging real-world data to demonstrate long-term value

In mature markets, extensive real-world data can be a powerful differentiator. Johnson & Johnson's use of real-world evidence for Invokana in diabetes management helped maintain its competitive edge against competitors and new entrants, while demonstrating better patient outcomes such as adherence and cost.⁴

Strategy: Conduct post-market studies to gather economic and clinical data. Use this information to demonstrate long-term value to payers, providers, and patients.

Embracing digital ecosystem to streamline patient access

In today's digital age, innovative marketing approaches can set your product apart. Biohaven's launch of Nurtec showcases this strategy in action.5 They partnered with Cove telemedicine network, enabling website visitors to schedule evaluations and, if appropriate, receive prescriptions delivered to their homes or local pharmacies. This seamless digital experience, coupled with $0 copay cards, improved access to their solution - a tactic mature products can employ for renewed market relevance.

Strategy: Create integrated digital ecosystems that streamline patient access, enhance treatment journeys, and provide value-added services, setting your mature product apart in a crowded market.

Summary

By implementing these strategies, pharmaceutical companies can evolve their marketing approaches to protect and grow market share in competitive mature markets. The key lies in balancing the established reputation of the product with continuous innovation in both the product itself and the marketing strategies employed.

Sayali Kadam is a Director at Merck

References:

1. https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer_launches_novel_programs_to_put_important_support_services_at_the_fingertips_of_cancer_patients, accessed Aug 14, 2024
2. https://www.entrestohcp.com/, accessed Aug 14, 2024
3. https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lillys-taltzr-ixekizumab-now-available-new-citrate-free#:~:text=Lilly%27s%20Taltz%C2%AE%20(ixekizumab)%20Now,Experience%20%7C%20Eli%20Lilly%20and%20Company, accessed Aug 14, 2024
4. https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/real-world-evidence-shows-oral-invokana-canagliflozin-results-in-greater-weight-loss-and-treatment-adherence-than-injectable-glp-1-receptor-agonists-in-type-2-diabetes-patients, accessed Aug 14, 2024
5. https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/biohaven-accelerates-dtc-campaign-timing-for-migraine-med-nurtec-odt-launches-tv-digital, accessed Aug 14, 2024