The challenge
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressively worsening neurodegenerative disease affecting 50 million people worldwide. Patient management currently focuses on relieving symptoms; long-awaited efficacious treatments that target the underlying pathology of the disease are increasingly becoming available.
Our client was developing a disease-modifying Alzheimer’s treatment, and needed to understand how the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s was changing due to the availability of new therapies. The insights were used to understand the competitive landscape and strategically position their drug for launch.
Our solution
The Therapy Watch team developed and launched a comprehensive questionnaire that was completed by neurologists, psychiatrists, geriatricians, and PCPs in the US, Germany, and Japan.
The questionnaire required completion of patient record forms (PRFs) for patients treated with disease modifying treatments (DMTs) or symptomatic Alzheimer’s treatments. Questionnaire coverage was broad, including physician and patient demographics, diagnostic tools, disease status, treatment usage, treatment timelines, combination therapy usage, and treatment choice rationale. In addition, physicians were asked for awareness of new therapies.
This was the first wave of Alzheimer’s research by Therapy Watch, and the study was designed to continue in successive waves and allow tracking of data over time.
The results
The first wave of the Alzheimer’s Therapy Watch tracker provided our client with real-world patient data to help them make strategic decisions for the launch of their drug. Analysis from this robust data set gave our client confidence in their understanding of the evolving Alzheimer’s market opportunities, and the implications of this on their upcoming product launch.
Some of the most important insights from the study came from a detailed analysis of the profiles of patients receiving and physicians using key diagnostic tests and DMTs. This allowed the client to develop a deep understanding of which types of physicians are early adopters of new DMT treatments, and which types of patients they usually prescribe them to. The study also established a baseline for ongoing tracking of testing rates, time to treatment, market shares, treatment choice rationale, and other key metrics, which will be tracked as the market continues to evolve.
The Therapy Watch team presented these findings to a wide range of internal stakeholders and further custom analysis was conducted following these discussions. Access to the Alzheimer’s dashboard was also provided to more than 20 of these stakeholders for ongoing analysis. Following successful completion of the first wave, the scope of the second wave has been expanded to include additional markets
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