Excellence in Customer Focus - Physician/Prescribing

Azacitidine (Vidaza), the first licensed treatment for the management of Intermediate-2 and high-risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) across Europe, was seen by clinicians as a breakthrough treatment for patients with limited other options. However, prior to the positive NICE appraisal for Vidaza in February 2011, there was limited experience of prescribing of Vidaza outside the MDS centres of Excellence and larger teaching hospitals. Therefore, following the positive NICE recommendation, Celgene initiated a three-pronged customer support programme, focusing on clinicians, nurses and pharmacists based in District General Hospitals (DGH), to ensure all patients across England were able to access the treatment on the NHS. 
The support programme, based on critical insights from European markets where Vidaza was widely-used and existing prescribers and UK clinical trialists, focused on: 

• Patient identification and diagnosis 

• Initiation and maintaining patients on treatment 

• Administration and side effect management. 

Executive summary as submitted