Commercial success in the rare disease field depends on a highly patient-centric approach that connects effectively with rare disease patient communities at a senior management level and focuses on access and interactions with thought leaders and physicians, rather than on selling drug features and benefits. This is the topic of our latest contributed article for In Vivo, which provides an in-depth analysis of the business model of successful rare disease franchises and recommendations for larger firms seeking to engage in such initiatives.
As discussed in the article, we believe orphan drug franchises perform better if kept separate from traditional pharmaceutical/biotech organizations due to the different cultures needed for successful product commercialization.
Large companies can rarely afford such focused engagement for a small product line and face organizational structures and pressures that make alignment with a successful rare disease model difficult. The large size of a pharmaceutical company often comes with standardized practices, slower decision-making, and legal corporate compliance policies that can greatly limit patient contact at meetings and other settings. The best model to date for large companies building rare disease franchises has been one in which an existing rare disease company has been acquired and left alone to interact with the rare disease community.
You can read the full text of the article here: /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bionest_IV1602_Orphans.pdf