Marketing from big pharma to start-up biotech

Ayse Kocak, VP of Marketing at Cerimon, is prominently placed to talk about what small biotechs do and don’t have in common with big pharma and building successful brands that go across the board.

Ayse Kocak was named Vice President of Marketing at Cerimon Pharmaceuticals in December 2006. She reports to Paul Sekhri, Cerimon’s President and CEO, and is responsible for evaluating and developing commercial strategies around the company’s evolving pain and autoimmune pipeline and managing the company’s marketing efforts upon product approvals.

Before Cerimon, Kocak served as Marketing Director for Pfizer’s Geodon US Psychosis Team. In her twelve years at Pfizer, she developed and implemented a number of successful product launches and enhanced the effectiveness of marketing programs.

NGP. You’ve recently moved from the leading pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, to the start-up biotech firm Cerimon. What are some of the similarities that you see between biotech and big pharma?

AK. I see significant similarities in three main areas: overall mission, product development and regulatory challenges. Most importantly, both pharma and biotech companies focus on providing patients with safe and effective drugs that significantly improve quality of life or save lives. From my observations, aiming to improve patients’ lives is the primary motivator for company employees, and this keeps employees driven when facing challenges inherent to the long drug development process.

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are also subject to the same challenges affecting the overall healthcare industry, including the rising costs of drug development, the ever-changing opinion of the public and the pressures of shifting regulations on drug research, commercialization, marketing and sales. Finally, increasing competition among biotech and pharma means more companies today vying for the same investors and consumers.

NGP. What differences in culture have you noticed?

AK. There are some notable differences with regard to corporate culture. In many ways, the biotech sector is the next evolution of the pharmaceutical industry. As such, some biotech companies seem to be more entrepreneurial and flexible in business development, partnering strategies and operations. Another big difference is the scope of the business.

While it is standard for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for a number of large disease areas in order to sustain their growth and influence in those markets, many biotechs, like Cerimon, are much more specialized in one or a few disease areas.

NGP. How does this different business scope affect your job?

AK. The difference in business scope affects the way we develop and execute marketing and sales strategies. Cerimon will not require a large sales force to call on thousands of physicians’ offices. Our focus on autoimmune diseases, related inflammatory conditions and pain management allows us to build a relatively small sales force that can reach specialists working in these areas. We also will not require the large direct-to-consumer effort that is such a key strategic consideration and cost for big pharma.

Moreover, given the size of the marketing and sales budgets at a company like Cerimon, compared with the much larger spend by a pharmaceutical company, getting our product messages delivered to the right audiences requires a lot of innovation and creativity.

NGP. What are your key responsibilities at Cerimon?

AK. Currently, my primary focus at Cerimon is the evaluation of new assets that would round out our pipeline and complement our product development focus. For each asset that we evaluate, I look closely at the market opportunity to see if the product will successfully address this medical need specified appropriately and whether these assets are worth bringing to our portfolio.

My other main responsibility is to work with our development team to ensure that our two late-stage product candidates, Simulect and topical diclofenac, are properly profiled while in clinical evaluation. My contribution in this area is to ensure that we stay focused on maintaining our business approach while maintaining a commercial sensibility to meet the needs of most importantly patients, physicians and payers.

I also focus on supporting the development team with effective strategies to improve patient recruitment to our studies. Once these products get closer to FDA approval, my primary focus will shift to building out the commercial infrastructure to ensure successful launches.

NGP. What medicines do you currently have in development?

AK. Cerimon is currently developing two late-stage product candidates: a topical formulation of diclofenac sodium for the treatment of pain that will enter Phase III clinical trials in early 2008, and Simulect, which entered Phase IIb clinical evaluation for moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis in February of this year.

NGP. What is the best way to achieve a fully integrated commercialization strategy for a new product launch?

AK. I believe one of the biggest challenges for small biotech companies is integration, the value of which lies in bringing together the right combination of people and resources in order to develop novel drugs. I think that Cerimon is doing it right by integrating product development with marketing at an early stage.

Not too long ago marketers were kept at bay during the clinical development process, and only given data to begin the branding cycle towards the end of that process. Today there is far more competition for the mindshare of physicians and patients, so the full commercial potential of a prospective product must be assessed concurrently with the initiation of requisite clinical studies to gain regulatory approval.

I believe that, in order to achieve an optimum outcome, the clinical development and commercial teams have to be in agreement on major questions such as the commercial potential of the brand, market conditions and acceptance for new drugs, the competitive landscape, the physician audience and consumers’ needs. In short, the marketing and sales “blueprint” must be laid out at a very early stage to build a successful, lasting brand.

NGP. What are the key strategic and tactical elements to building this successful brand?

AK. I define a successful brand as one that is differentiated from its competitors, provides value to patients and its other customers, and can cross international borders. The key strategic components are the usual suspects: brand positioning, brand personality and values. Successful planning and implementation of these components require a through understanding of the product and its potential value, as well as the needs of the patients, physicians and payers.

With regard to tactical elements, I believe a good combination of all marketing channels including traditional advertising and promotion, public relations, direct marketing, internet-based marketing and original content communications to patients and physicians will help to create an effective branding campaign. Integration of more effective and efficient branding strategies will have a more targeted focus.

These elements apply to both marketing of pharmaceutical and biotech drugs. The specific tactics and channels utilized will depend on the disease, physician audience, patient population and product.

NGP. What do you think about building global brands?

AK. It is clear that the industry as a whole is moving toward global branding, which will require more uniform and consistent messaging worldwide. While consistency of brand is essential, it is just as important to recognize and address local market sensitivities and culture that might necessitate alterations of the product messages. We need to understand and analyze even the subtlest differences between markets in order to achieve effective product globalization.

NGP. One of the big strategic considerations you mentioned is direct-to-consumer (DTC). How do you assess if DTC would work for your brand?

AK. The definition of DTC and how it can be implemented is still evolving. With its varied methods of implementation, it has become one of the most important strategic considerations in the planning and execution of a successful brand. Marketing departments that are deciding whether to pursue a DTC strategy should evaluate several criteria before proceeding. A few key questions to consider might be:

• Do physicians have enough confidence in the product to provide their patients with the requested drug?
• How involved are patients in their current disease state?
• What venues exist to reach patients?
• Is there a big problem with patient compliance to therapy?

The decision is highly dependent on the market, the product and the patient population you are working with.

NGP. What is your opinion on unbranded patient communications?

AK. Unbranded patient communications has been a very effective strategy with patients and their caregivers, especially for brand managers outside of the US who are not permitted to do branded DTC. These programs may come in different forms such as patient/caregiver education, adherence/loyalty programs and disease awareness programs. These types of programs can be very effective ways to educate patients.

As an example, patient education, in the form of office brochures or posters can serve to educate and inform patients and drive them to ask their doctors questions that might have otherwise not been asked. Another example is disease awareness campaigns, which are the only legal form of DTC advertising in Europe.

These examples highlight the importance of patient focus in marketing. As long as we keep the patient at the core of what we do, we will always succeed.

NGP. What do you think it takes to build a corporate brand image that successfully garners physician brand loyalty?

AK. A credible corporate brand image that identifies a company with the needs, wants and interests of their customers can be a key factor for customer loyalty. I think ‘credibility’ is the key value proposition of a corporate image in pharmaceuticals. Building credibility is a lifelong, continuous process. It requires communication of consistent information and impressions about the company and its activities through public relations, key opinion-leaders and advocacy groups. What others say about your company is so much powerful and credible than what we say about ourselves and helps build your corporate image more effectively than any other initiative.

Simulect is a registered trademark of Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, 2007.