printable version

THE ISSUE

In order to support the commercial development and eventual marketing of a mental health medication given a potential new indication, our client, a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical firm, needed to estimate the degree of unmet treatment need for this highly disabling condition. Specifically, this entailed:

Identifying both diagnosed and undiagnosed sufferers who could benefit from this advance

Determining an optimal communication strategy for different types of sufferers

Understanding the best ways of reaching these sufferers

A critical challenge with this kind of research is the difficulty in establishing ‘caseness’ in community studies, given: (a) the ‘grey’ criteria that surround mental health disorder classification; and (b) the need to rely on brief questionnaires for lay administration rather than clinical evaluation (e.g., by a psychiatrist).

THE APPROACH

 

In order to meet these challenges, Observant LLC team members collaborated closely with an independent leading academic epidemiologist and our client to review the epidemiological underpinnings of the disorder and ensure that our approach would yield the most accurate epidemiological estimates possible.

We conducted an internet-based survey of 613 respondents recruited from the general population. The survey was designed to tap into key ‘drivers’ which may shape demand for the product, including symptom history and severity,comorbidities, treatment seeking behaviors, preferences for different communication channels, and general attitudes about mental illness and its treatment. Data collection was highly successful and the research was completed within 12 weeks.

THE OUTCOME

Data were analyzed using latent class segmentation modeling methods. The analysis yielded segments that were strongly differentiated and targetable. Statistical adjustments were made to ensure that estimates of segment size were accurate given current epidemiological knowledge of the sufferer population.

Multiple work sessions and presentations with the client group ensured that the end-users were ‘on-board’ with the findings and our strategic recommendations. Recommendations focused on a ‘treatment cascade’ which highlighted the flow of sufferers into the healthcare system and ultimately into an appropriate therapeutic regimen.

These recommendations directly enabled the team to adopt a focused DTC approach to marketing the product and to develop a staged marketing plan that prioritized high-value segments in the medium term.