Key performance indicators (KPIs) provide an at-a-glance method for evaluating the success of a pharmaceutical product launch.
With so much at stake surrounding pharmaceutical products for rare diseases, choosing a robust set of KPIs is essential to an accurate understanding of the release of a new medication onto the market.
4 Types of KPIs to Know
Across all industries, 95 percent of new product launches fail, writes strategic planning facilitator Marc Emmer. While failure rates are higher in some industries than others, the high costs and other challenges of bringing a new drug to market raises the stakes for its launch.
Is your product launch a success? By what measure? And if it’s lacking, where are the problems in the launch process and how might they be fixed?
Choosing the right KPIs for a pharmaceutical product launch can answer these questions in real time, allowing your team to adapt to changing conditions as a new drug goes to market.
KPIs for a product launch fall into four general categories, writes Madison Blask at innovation and IT services company Crayon. Within these categories, specific measurements can be tailored to the product, the launch strategy and changing conditions throughout the launch process.
Launch Campaign Metrics
These metrics focus on the marketing and communications strategy surrounding a launch, writes Blask.
Commonly tracked launch campaign KPIs include:
- Leads generated.
- Promotional channel metrics, both online and offline.
- News coverage, including KOL contacts for pharmaceutical launches.
Product Adoption Metrics
How is your newly launched drug being prescribed by providers, dispensed by pharmacies and used by patients? Product adoption KPIs provide answers to these questions.
Popular KPIs to track product adoption include:
- Product trials, including provider sample distribution.
- Patient use of the newly released drug over time.
- Patient outcomes, including retention for long-term treatments or efficacy of treatments with an intended end point, such as chemotherapies.
Market Impact Metrics
Drugs for rare diseases are often measured on a different scale than commonly used drugs when assessing market impact. These KPIs can tell you where your product stands among other pharmaceutical options.
Top market impact KPIs include:
- Revenue.
- Market share.
- Competitive win rate — especially if patients have other treatment options available.
Qualitative Feedback
While quantitative KPIs are often easiest to track, they don’t provide a full picture of the successes or challenges of a pharmaceutical product launch. Qualitative feedback in the form of information from both internal teams and external stakeholders can provide a fuller picture of how a new product is performing.
Track and Analyze KPIs for Better Insights
“For KPIs to be successful, they must be clearly communicated and standardized across the organization,” writes Lorna Hewin at Lumanity. “They should run like a thread through the launch team, senior leadership team and other significant stakeholders.”
One way to communicate and standardize KPIs is to use a single integrated platform for tracking data related to your KPI measurements. For example, a platform that allows you to see how a new medication is prescribed, administered, used and treated by payers all at once can ensure that you have access to the data you need to turn KPIs into actionable data.
A single integrated platform can:
- Collect leads, track communication and centralize information for sharing with communication outlets, KOLs, COEs and other key sources.
- Help teams understand and influence product adoption rates, such as by spotting where product use is lagging and offering assistance over certain hurdles.
- Track the data required to calculate revenue, profit, market share, competitive win rate and other useful KPIs to demonstrate launch success.
- Collect qualitative feedback from providers, pharmaceutical distributors, payers and patients for a more complete picture of your product’s effectiveness.
Tracking the right KPIs can help turn any pharmaceutical product launch into a source of valuable information and insight.
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