The Road Less Travelled: A Journey in Pharmaceutical Innovation
Around this time in the morning, if I were still in Basel, I would be sitting down with my coffee and a flaky gipfeli pastry. Instead, today, it is a decaf tea and satsuma day, but I am reminded of a lesson I learned many years ago about ‘the road less travelled’ and thinking outside the box in the fast-paced world of pharmaceuticals.
A couple of years ago, a client approached us to help them refine their asset prioritisation process and help them make informed decisions. We took the time to understand their needs and evaluated each asset using a set of agreed criteria. We soon noticed that the success criteria favoured assets with published data, subtly positioning our client as a follower rather than a leader.
In the pharmaceutical industry, being a fast follower is often not enough. The journey to market is won by those who are the fastest and have the best clinical operations team. Small biotechs, lacking local experience and relying on contracted operations teams, often struggle to compete.
It is tempting to decide a drug’s value by its obvious pharmacological effect, like statins lower cholesterol or beta-blockers lower blood pressure. I call this approach the “line of sight”. The pressure builds to become the longest, the fastest or the safest, and the hurdles increase with each study read-out. But there is an alternative strategy.
In my early days with a gipfeli and coffee, I was focused on treatment for diabetes using meglitinide. These drugs stimulate insulin production more rapidly than sulfonylureas, offering the most benefit post meal, helping patients avoid glucose spikes and making the whole process more enjoyable. We decided to spotlight this benefit by launching a campaign called “mealtime matters”.
As part of our preparation, we conducted a study where volunteers tested their blood glucose levels before and after engaging in an activity. Volunteers were tested as they entered a co-op in Basel, where they were treated to a gipfeli and coffee, browsed the store, and tested again before leaving. Happily, our biggest demographics, elderly customers, had lined up around the block. The study provided valuable data on post-meal glucose spikes and helped us identify individuals with low-insulin response and potential undiagnosed diabetes. The data proved to be invaluable at launch, it was obvious that if you have diabetes, mealtimes matter.
By thinking outside the box, taking the road less travelled and challenging the status quo, we can make significant strides in improving patient outcomes and driving innovation. Just as my morning routine has evolved, so too has our approach in the pharmaceutical industry.
