Getting pharmaceutical products to market is a complex and ongoing challenge. Biopharma companies must navigate an intricate world within a dynamic landscape. From discovery to pre-clinical and distribution to patient support and regulatory affairs, biopharma companies must thoughtfully approach launch planning and execution to ensure these novel advanced therapies can be optimally accessed by patients.
A customized channel strategy aims to create optimal product access based on product attributes and patient needs. It considers the multiple factors that go into safe distribution doses and helps anticipate and prevent potential roadblocks to a successful launch, such as time constraints, unique ordering or order flow requirements, storage and shipping considerations, and even financial and reimbursement complexities. Whether a new biopharma company is preparing for its first launch or an established one is launching in a different therapeutic area, distribution channel strategy decisions can help successfully navigate the complexity and accelerate time to market.
At the same time, the channel strategy needs to remain flexible enough to evolve distribution services over time. Ultimately, it can have a positive impact on your patient and provider’s experience and your brand’s impact.
“With many of the new product archetypes coming out today, we may need to assess different needs and models based on product attributes and patient and provider needs. Even where a company has used a specific channel strategy for a previous product launch, we don’t always assume that the same strategy will work with their next product,” he says.
In working with biopharma companies to achieve the optimal channel strategy, Cencora uses a consultative partnership approach. “Ultimately, the channel strategy is the biopharma company’s decision, and throughout our engagement we consider the goals of both the biopharma company and the downstream healthcare provider customer, ask questions, and talk through their challenges,” says Guinter. “Despite our best planning and preparation we don’t know what we don’t know, so this approach helps both parties uncover any critical gaps,” he says.
The initial conversation is the most important, as it lays the groundwork for the entire array of factors that may be considered to ensure a successful product launch. “Obviously, that’s going to evolve as more information is available. We try to uncover and understand unique product attributes and the details on the patient and prescriber journey and then agree on what we need to solve for,” says Stacey Kodrich, Director, Channel Strategy and Product Access at Cencora. “These will include considerations ranging from current market dynamics that could affect the launch, to what impact the product’s clinical road map might have on the strategy, to what sites of care they should be thinking about" she says. These conversations can also uncover needs outside of distribution services critically important to product launch, such as market access and payer engagement, patient services, and even ex-U.S. support, where connections can be facilitated with other segments of Cencora to provide broader support across the full scope of commercialization planning.
While there are multiple product nuances to understand from the supplier perspective, there are equally as many factors to learn from the customer’s perspective, such as how they want to access the product, where they want to access it, and specific operational consideration for sites of care. “Usually, there is no one right answer, so when we talk through channel considerations, we try to lay out all the options to find the best fit for patient access, provider access, and product goals,” says Guinter.
Cencora's specialized services ensure timely availability of products by addressing unique challenges related to each product's specific characteristics – from packaging requirements to temperature controls to data needs. “At the end of the day the biopharma company is going to make the best decision for their product and through collaboration we collectively find the best solution,” he continues.
Leveraging extensive network and expertise to optimize distribution channels
Cencora serves as the critical link between biopharma companies and healthcare providers, leveraging its extensive network and expertise to connect the two. “Just as we help them to connect the dots and find solutions for commercializing their products, we also act as that connection to help manufacturers understand and reach the appropriate sites of care because that is critical to optimizing access,” says Kodrich.
Appropriately connecting all points of the healthcare spectrum, drives optimal access to pharmaceutical care. “To provide our biopharma partners confidence, and a general sense of alignment on the targets they have identified, we, in some instances, can conduct a customer match and indicate our estimated coverage. This exercise has been helpful when evaluating various channel strategy designs in addition to reducing customer access delays at launch,” says Kodrich.
A flexible approach to specialty product distribution
No one product launch is identical to another, and there are times when a broad access distribution approach makes the most sense. “But with more and more specialty products being launched in rare disease and ultra-orphan populations, our manufacturer partners are increasingly pursuing a more targeted approach to distribution services,” says Guinter. As many of these therapies require precise logistics coordination, patient/provider education, and data considerations, a flexible approach allows for optimized access for the defined patient population and classes of trade. “This enables us to offer timely access to specific sites of care with ease via our streamlined internal contracting process. It also affords us the ability to evolve and expand over time as needs change," he says.
Cencora is able to optimize flexibility thanks to its fully integrated distribution capabilities—which include state-of-the-art pharmaceutical warehouse capabilities, analytics, inventory and tracking solutions. “These allow for the safe, efficient, and reliable delivery of these crucial therapies to all sites-of-care, ensuring optimal patient access where they receive care,” says Guinter.