A drug on the market for more than a decade was facing patent expiration within 18 months. Deciding when to end or reduce sales force support was critical to the company's financials.

1. Case Study: The Situation
When to Remove Sales
Force Support For a
A major drug on the market for more than a
decade was facing patent expiration within 18
months. Key considerations for the brand team
Brand Losing Exclusivity
were:
• Preferred drug in its class for treatment
• Ranked high among specialty and primary
care audiences for effectiveness and
Business Issue tolerable side effects
• No new drugs within the same class in
When facing patent expiration, there are a number of tactics a pharmaceutical company development by the company
employs to ensure that the life of that branded drug is prolonged just enough to meet • $2 billion forecasted in annual sales
forecasted demand. It is critical that resources are allocated appropriately so that last
stage promotional strategies continue to influence without unnecessary expenditure. Deciding when to end or reduce sales force
support was critical to the company’s financials.
Finding the right balance of tactics that help to mitigate the effect of predicted sales Factors affecting the brand team’s analysis and
loss is key. Often, approaches to finding this balance require years of advanced planning, final recommendation included the following:
• Effect on rep employment
• Significant loss in employee training
investment
• Potential impact on customer satisfaction
from loss of support and product samples
availability
• Prospect of higher revenue loss from
prematurely ending sales coverage
Decision Point:
When should sales reps stop
promoting this product?
such as line extension strategies; other approaches can be developed and executed within
the year prior, such as strategic pricing initiatives. The ideal mix of sun setting tactics Key Outcomes
is almost always influenced by the unique dynamics of a market for that particular drug.
However, these complex regional attributes, such as level of customer adoption and loyalty,
the number of generics entering the space, or even the ease or complexity of delivery • Significant cost savings of $157 million
methods, can limit the ability to uncover both tactical and strategic performance insights • $2 billion forecast met
for effective decision-making. • Predicted sales loss between $4 million
and $8 million was not realized
• Definitive actionable insights robust
enough to satisfy scrutiny or challenge

2. Solution specialty drug to a primary care drug. With monthly
refreshes of Model N’s Brand ImpACT, analysts
A highly informed, data-driven decision
confirmed the findings and spun off additional
process that leveraged rigorous analytics
related analyses, such as rep vacancies. About Model N
Due t o t he s ensiti v e na t ur e and s t r a t e gic Model N is the leading provider
implications involved, the decision materialized in
Results of Revenue Management and
two stages.
analy tics solu tions for Life
Definitive insights resulting in significant Sciences manufacturers. Our
savings and no observed sales loss
Stage 1: Revenue Management Solutions
Data Production and Delivery Based on accurate, specialized and consolidated deliver substantial value by
data sets leveraged by Model N’s Brand ImpACT, enabling our customers to capture
First, the brand team took steps to analyze and
the analysis process revealed that: lost revenue, improve gross
organize the data from the following sources:
• 24 months of detailing and sampling history margin, and reduce financial risk.
• Recent sales growth came from non-targeted Top ten and emerging industry
• 24 months of territory vacancy data
physicians leaders use Model N analytics
• 24 months of NRx and TRx sales at the
• The end of personal promotion could begin 9 solutions to gain actionable
physician level (IMS Xponent Monthly)
months before patent expiration intelligence and drive strategic
• Cost of territory information from finance
• Additional reminders on the use and efficacy decisions across Marketing, Sales
The brand team then produced the following two of the product were not needed for prescribers and Finance.
data sets: to continue its use
• A physician level data set with historical calls, • Vacant territories showed an initial increase
samples, and Xponent information in sales (likely due to lack of cannibalization by
• A territory level data set with Xponent trends samples), followed by a slow erosion
over 24 months as well as specific months of • Segments that were not receiving promotion
territory vacancy at all were actually growing in volume
Stage 2: Based on these insights the following action was
Author and publish deep exploratory analyses taken:
Using Model N’s Brand ImpACT, the brand team • S al e s f o r c e s w e r e d i s b a n d e d a t t h e
conducted the following analysis for insights into recommended 9 months prior to LOE
promotional and regional response:
From this, the company ultimately benefited from
• First data set contained physicians segmented the following:
by specialty and by cluster • Cost savings from removing sales support
—60 segments developed for individual estimated at $157 million
behavior analysis • Projected sales loss set between $4 million
—Segment cur ves viewed to analyze and $8 million was not realized, in fact no
territory vacancy occurrence sales loss occurred
• Second data set studied territory vacancy to • Sales continued to rise to the $2 billion mark
observe erosion over time
• The two data sets were then triangulated for For further information
An additional benefit resulting from this analysis please contact:
further analysis
was that hundreds of sales reps were able to move
to other positions within the organization through
sales@modeln.com
The brand team ultimately determined that more natural attrition. Early planning and a clear plan of
Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) were new brand action allowed valuable resources to remain with
writers, since new indications shifted from a the company.
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