Rare Honesty Sparks Rare Disease Drug’s Next Big Leap

Research Challenge:

A brilliant, rare disease therapy was looking for its next level of growth, which proved easier said than done. Despite its obvious advantages over legacy therapies some physicians were still reticent to adopt it. The overt, rational and well-documented clinical arguments failed to penetrate. Something else was going on. Was there something we hadn’t uncovered in past research that could tip the scales? Something they weren’t aware of or willing to admit?

Another round of typical Q&A research would never get inside this. We needed to get at this deeper issue in a way that revealed the honest truth. Behavior change was not going to happen unless they could spur it with new, fresh stimulation. In fact, they were in the throes of new marketing material development, so we needed to get this done smart and quickly.

 

Research Solution:

Thankfully, we had the perfect method for this problem, S+R Guided Deliberations. Borne from our leading-edge mock jury discipline, it is a learning lab to watch parties with different opinions debate and come to a consensus (like a jury). We set the stage, layout the issue, and with some light moderation watch persuasion and influence happen in real-time. We can even toss in new “evidence” to assess its impact on the trajectory of the discussion and outcome.

In this particular case, the debate was simply the merits of our client’s breakthrough therapy versus the most popular treatment. As the conversation went on, it became clear that the argument had little to do with clinical impacts or accessibility. Rather, it was far more about the ego and risk tolerance of the treating physician.

For this condition, achieving stability is a critical milestone. Once a patient got it there was little motivation to “rock the boat,” even if patients had other struggles or negative impacts weighing on them. Stability kept HCPs from even raising the idea of change. It was hard for them to explain, which made it hard to defend even though they knew it could improve matters. They didn’t want to risk their reputation or the relationship they built with their patient.

 

Client Result:

This insight inspired the client to consider a new set of solutions, going well beyond the usual marketing communications. This was about leveraging social proof, closing the empathy gap and tackling status quo bias. It was about leaning into and resolving the emotional tension that physicians faced, and by virtue of that giving them the confidence and permission to start the conversation with their patients. This opened our client’s eyes to a new way of attacking an old problem. Our work made its way around our client’s hallways, leading other teams to reach out for help with similar struggles.