Strategic Insights for New Product Planning

With a commercial landscape that’s constantly evolving, the pressure to plan a flawless product launch is higher than ever. But a solid go-to-market strategy maximizes your likelihood of success, and organizations of similar size, therapeutic area, and commercialization experience can learn from each other’s launch strategies.

Triangle Insights surveyed 124 pharma and biotech commercial leaders about their recent new product planning (NPP) processes for launching new drugs. While NPP is not a one-size-fits-all process, the survey revealed key insights into optimal activities, timelines, and budget spend across the NPP landscape.  

Ranking Critical Workstreams In NPP

For many companies, the most valuable NPP activities are market landscape assessment, pricing & market access strategy development, and target product profile (TPP)/value proposition development. These activities define a new product’s niche within the market and increase its value. There is some nuance, however, depending on the type of drug being launched. 

• Oncology Drugs: Companies will highly value market landscape assessment and TPP/value proposition development, given the rapid evolution of care, institutionalized treatment guidelines, and patient segments.
• Metabolic & Obesity Products: Stakeholder engagement, field force strategy development, and message development/testing are highly valued. With the growing focus on direct-to-consumer channels, these companies prioritize message development and stakeholder engagement.
• Rare Disease Drugs: The patient journey is highly valued for rare diseases. There may be extremely high unmet need and limited competition, but the patient population and path to treatment may be poorly characterized. 

Resource Allocation: Balancing High Value and High Cost

Launching a new product can be expensive, and companies have to allocate resources wisely. The most valuable workstreams are often the most costly and resource-intensive. 

On average, highly valuable but costly workstreams include:

• Market landscape assessment
• Pricing & market access strategy development
• TPP/value proposition development

These workstreams help define the product’s differentiation, value, and positioning within the market, making them critical for any go-to-market strategy. Across workstreams, large pharma and biotech groups tend to spend more on these NPP activities compared to smaller companies. 

The Right Launch Timeline for Success

Timelines for the NPP process vary by company size and product type. Smaller organizations report early market landscape assessments and TPP/value proposition development in order to validate the commercial opportunity and secure more funding.

For larger companies, workstreams are generally initiated earlier but conducted over a longer period of time. These groups test multiple iterations of products and prepare for a variety of market scenarios. 

There are distinct patterns for rare disease launches compared to non-rare launches. For rare disease groups, message development and testing, stakeholder engagement, and patient support strategy begin earlier compared to non-rare conditions. Rare disease launches need to engage stakeholders and drive awareness sooner.

When to Bring in External Support 

NPP workstreams can be completed internally or externally. Work that requires lots of alignment from within a company is often best executed in-house, while activities that need specialists are often best suited for an external partner with more experience. 

Common in-house workstreams include:

• TPP/value proposition development
• Demand forecasting
• Stakeholder engagement strategy 

External support is often used for: 

• Blinded and unbiased testing
• Patient journey mapping
• Message development/testing 

An organization’s size and available resources will impact the division of labor during NPP. Smaller groups may lack previous launch experience while larger organizations can leverage internal frameworks and full-time employees.

Connecting Strategy with Final Execution

Ultimately, successful launches are defined by the connection between a market’s unmet need and your asset’s intended value. By focusing resources on the workstreams that matter most and engaging the right expertise at the right time, your organization can turn a high-level commercial strategy into a flawlessly executed launch.

Want to dive deeper into the data? Read the full Whitepaper on our survey of successful new product planning strategies.