Winner
ALUNBRIG
Summary of work
The success of the ALUNBRIG▼ (brigatinib) launch has been a combination of the collaboration, early engagement, honesty and open communication between Takeda Oncology and its partners, NICE, NHS England, and the ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient and clinical community. The team overcame market access obstacles to achieve rapid reimbursement across the UK for advanced NSCLC (aNSCLC) patients following treatment with crizotinib. NICE issued positive guidance only three months after Marketing Authorisation, a record for the company.
Pre-launch initiatives successfully prepared the market for commercial launch in March 2019. The high-impact launch of ALUNBRIG, with the advocacy of global KOLs, and consistent brand messaging enabled ALUNBRIG to have the most rapid launch trajectory of second line agents in ALK+ aNSCLC, with a third of eligible patients already benefiting. In ongoing partnership with clinical experts, Takeda with Rock Unlimited developed a peer-to-peer education programme including the ’expert-on-demand’ programme. This collaboration has established Takeda as a partner in medical education, while ensuring ALUNBRIG is top-of-mind as the treatment of choice.
Never losing sight of its patient-centric values, Takeda has left no stone unturned to ensure all eligible patients can benefit from ALUNBRIG, whilst generating excellent relations with both the clinical and patient community.
Judges’ comments
The ALUNBRIG entry was impressive. It had in-depth market and consumer insight, all steps taken were effective and the analytic results were outstanding. It was clear that lessons were learnt and that it would be used for future launches. It had strong early engagement with NICE and other key stakeholders. All in all a great launch campaign.
