Commercial Strategies

The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference includes presentations from major medtech companies describing their experience in 2021 and expectations for 2022 as they continue to cope with the impact of the Omicron surge. Here are some of the highlights from the presentations on the first day of the meeting.

In this special podcast, Medtech Insight commercial/R&D editor Reed Miller talks to In Vivo executive editor Ashley Yeo about the annual MTI 100 list and the major trends facing the top medtech companies entering the third year of the pandemic.

Medtech’s resilience and flexibility have been clear to see during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this forward-looking view for 2022, CEOs from some of the leading global medtechs share their perspectives on the present and the future, from company and health care system standpoints.

Pharmaceutical marketing and sales shifted toward digital by necessity as the COVID-19 pandemic set in, but advertising experts say offline channels still have an important place in an effective, multi-channel promotional strategy. Defining a brand’s key audience and customer drivers should be the determining factor in channel selection, not chasing the next new media platform.

"We are definitely worried," Tschudin said about some US drug price reform proposals. She also spoke about competitive rebating and new growth opportunities for anchor brands.

A potential decline in mRNA vaccine protection against the Delta variant is raising questions about the need for booster shots in the US. Ocugen Inc. and partner Bharat Biotech hope the changing dynamic of COVID-19 in the US will induce the FDA to reconsider additional clinical trial requirements for Covaxin, an inactivated whole virus vaccine authorized for emergency use in 16 countries. 

Royal Philips’ image-guided therapy business has rebounded, as expected, after the COVID-19 dip, and is now targeting expansion in a number of areas, as business leader Bert van Meurs explains. 

A deeper understanding of rare diseases – how they differ across geographies and ethnicities, or which genes and biomarkers are most useful targets for new treatments – can help to accelerate and de-risk clinical trials. On the commercial front, patient data and insights could mean the difference between a category leader and a failure.

Royal Philips’ image-guided therapy business has rebounded, as expected, after the COVID-19 dip, and is now targeting expansion in a number of areas, as business leader Bert van Meurs explains.

Start-up pharmacy benefit managers such as Capital Rx and Evio hope to shake up the traditional PBM service model with increased drug price transparency, aggregated real-world data and outcomes-based contracting. The big three PBMs which dominate the market represent a formidable challenge.

HashtagHealth builds social media campaigns informed by sophisticated social listening, a focus on specific patient needs and a measurable return on investment for clients. 2021 Rising Leader Brittany Latson, a HashtagHealth co-founder, has leveraged her unique career experiences – at Disney, CVS, and advertising agencies large and small – to create a business that reflects her own values and priorities. 

Opioids are cheap, but the economics of clinical practice, including the shift of care from inside the hospital to outpatient or ambulatory facilities, are creating new opportunities for Pacira BioSciences’ non-opioid treatments for pain. Improved reimbursement and increased usage among anesthesiologists are the biggest revenue drivers for the company’s two marketed products.

Two years into her tenancy as CEO, Bahija Jallal is on the cusp of taking UK biotech Immunocore from a research and development organization to a company with a burgeoning pipeline and a marketed therapy. She talks to In Vivo about validating the platform, an IPO and creating a commercial footprint.

Pink Sheet reporters and editors discuss Bluebird Bio’s decision to pull its gene therapy business from Europe, Eli Lilly potentially pushing regulatory boundaries with its Olympic TV spots, and the CMS decision to scrap the Trump aministration’s most favored nation reimbursement rule.