Highlighting your treatment’s value fairly when comparing it with existing therapies

Introduction

An effective way of demonstrating the value of your new treatment is to show how it is different and more effective than other existing therapies or devices. 

But when doing so, you need to make sure that any comparisons you make are fair, truthful, and accurate. Even in countries like the US where direct pharma advertising to patients is allowed any claims made need to be accurate, and you need to avoid making disparaging comments about competitors’ treatments. 

This becomes even more important in most countries where pharma advertising to patients is not permitted. So, chances are you will be raising awareness of the effectiveness of your new therapy or device to healthcare audiences through non-promotional and educational materials such as case studies and white papers.

In this case, you want to avoid promoting your therapy, but at the same time, highlight its superiority over existing treatments. So any comparisons you make need to be presented objectively and backed up by evidence.

This is by no means an easy task so I am going to talk you through some basic principles on how you can compare your ground-breaking health innovation with current therapies without being salesy.

Setting the scene and describing existing treatments

The first thing you need to include is a background on the problem or challenge that your new therapy or device is trying to solve. For example, no current treatment for a genetic eye disease, or lack of adherence to medication among patients with diabetes.

Then move on to discuss existing treatments and solutions out there, including how they work, and briefly mention how they benefit patients. By doing so, you demonstrate that you’re willing to show the positives as well as the negatives, and provide a balanced view, which helps you gain credibility.

Once you have done this, list the disadvantages and challenges of existing treatments. Examples of challenges include:

–Limited efficacy – i.e. existing therapies don’t tackle the underlying cause of the illness, or they don’t sufficiently relieve symptoms

–Little or no improvement in survival rates

–Side effects – both short-term and long-term. You can also compare side effects of different methods of drug delivery. For example, a drug in tablet form may cause more side effects than treatment delivered in another way, such as an oral spray

–Availability and cost – costs of existing interventions to the healthcare system

–Inconvenience or onerous treatment regimens – for example, having to take multiple tablets a day, which could lead to poor adherence

What makes your treatment different?

Once you have highlighted the disadvantages of current treatments, you can describe the different ways your treatment is superior to existing therapies. For example:

–Greater efficacy – targets symptoms more effectively, or addresses the underlying causes of the disease

–Improved survival rates

–Fewer side effects

–Lower cost

–Lower dosing – one tablet as opposed to 3 tablets a day

–Innovation – for example, one-off gene therapy that is potentially curative as opposed to existing interventions that are taken in the long-term and only manage the condition

Remember data and evidence

As you describe the advantages of your innovative therapy or device, compared to existing treatments, it is important that you back this up with data and evidence. So, you need to include:

–Details of clinical trial results – including randomised control trials (RCTs), and the methods, protocols and endpoints used. 

–Measurable outcomes including reduction in symptoms, response rates, survival rates, progression-free survival, and patient-reported outcomes

–Visual aids – make use of bar charts, pie charts, visual abstracts, and infographics that sum up comparisons in a digestible form

–Case studies and real-world evidence – present patient testimonials and real-world data that shows the new treatment’s superiority in normal clinical practice

–Ensure compliance – make sure any data or evidence you present is objective and meets regulatory standards. Also, don’t just include positive results, disclose information on your new therapy’s limitations and side effects to ensure a balanced account

Benefits of treatment

It is also a good idea to frame comparisons in terms of how various healthcare stakeholders would benefit from the new therapy. For example:

–Patients want to know how your new treatment improves their quality of life in terms of physical and mental well-being and their ability to take part in normal day-to-day activities, compared to current treatments. 

–Payers look at how the new therapy helps them to lower hospital admissions, achieve savings, and minimise the need for additional treatments. They also look at the therapy’s wider societal impact in terms of allowing people to go back to work and become economically active again and reducing the burden on caregivers

–Healthcare providers expect to see evidence how your new therapy makes their lives easier. For example, how does the therapy or device make it easier for them to treat and monitor patients throughout the care process. it is also useful to provide them with any guidelines on the storage, administration, and disposal of the drug.

Call to action

Whether you advertise directly, or educate people about your new therapy in non-promotional materials, you need to show your audience that you’re willing to provide as much help as possible, So, encourage patients, physicians, and payers to follow up and learn more about your new therapy. This can be done by:

  • providing links to detailed, objective research papers that provide full clinical trial results, or webinars, or:
  • Provide contact information to encourage readers to get in touch with sales reps, clinical support teams, and product specialists

By following these principles, you will create a persuasive case for your new therapy or device in relation to current treatments, supported by evidence, while avoiding being overly promotional.

What healthcare audiences need from pharma and biotech content?

For your content to attract engagement and downloads, you need to understand what your audiences need. In the healthcare industry, there are many different stakeholders, including patients, physicians, payers, and investors. Each stakeholder will have their own reasons for reading medical content, be it white papers, case studies, or educational materials, and have expectations of its contents.

Getting to know your readers, the challenges they face, and what motivates them allows you to write content that is tailored to their interests and increases your chances of providing a solution that will solve their problems.

And when you keep on producing content that contributes to your audience’s knowledge of a subject, or helps them with the problems that keep them awake at night, you develop strong relationships and trust with those audiences.

And it is trust that turns those audiences into clients.

And clients mean sales.

But, before you even think about creating content, you need to know why the different healthcare stakeholders would read it and what they expect from you. So, in this post, I am going to discuss five key stakeholders and the issues they care about that hopefully will be a source of future topic ideas for your medical content.

Patients

At the very basic level, patients expect to see information about the therapy or device and how to use it. However, they are also concerned about how safe and effective it is, whether they will improve their health and quality of life, and whether there will be services on top of the product that would help manage their condition. So, to win the hearts and minds of patients, your content needs to include:

  • Information on the medication’s ingredients, or device’s features, and clear instructions on how to use it
  • A detailed explanation of the treatment process, particularly if the treatment is gene therapy and administration and delivery is complicated
  • The therapy’s side affects and risks associated with the long-term use of the medication
  • How the therapy interacts with other medications
  • Information on services that accompany the treatment such as access to nursing support and patient communities, devices that monitor blood glucose levels, apps that help with treatment adherence
  • Insurance coverage and financial assistance for the therapy/device, particularly for multi-payer systems such as the US
  • Patients-reported outcomes (PROs) and quality of life improvements brought about by the therapy/device in clinical trials and real-world use
  • Latest developments in treatments and guidelines
  • Advice on lifestyle choices that enhance the effectiveness of the treatment, and help manage the condition

Patients expect this information because they are most concerned about how the treatment impacts their daily routines and whether it allows them to lead fulfilling and active lives, beyond just surviving an illness. Patients also want valuable information and guides that enable them to make informed decisions that allow them to get the best out of their treatment, and improve their overall health.

Medical professionals

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals don’t just want promotional material that tells them how brilliant a therapy or device is. They expect useful, objective information and educational content that improves their knowledge of the disease and the available treatments. Knowledge that will enable them to work more effectively and do the very best for their patients. With this in mind, content targeted at medical professionals needs to include:

  • Scientific data from research papers that explains the technology behind the therapy or device
  • Clinical trial results and real-world evidence on a treatment or device’s safety, efficacy, and quality
  • Instructions on drug delivery and administration, particularly for complex therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, CAR-T therapies, and gene therapies
  • Educational information on disease diagnosis, treatment, and management
  • Medical content to pass on to patients so that they are empowered to manage their condition
  • Educational materials on the various challenges to patient’s adherence to medication and the measures that can be taken to overcome those challenges

Healthcare payers

Payers include governmental health departments, health technology assessment agencies (HTAs), and private health insurance companies. Payer audiences are in charge of the financial resources used to pay or reimburse for new health interventions. These resources are limited so in any content presented to them, payers expect to see information on the financial implications of granting reimbursement of a new therapeutic intervention, as well as data on its effectiveness. So, content for payer audiences needs to contain:

  • Clinical trial data and real-world evidence on a therapy or device’s efficacy, safety, and quality
  • Data on improvements in quality of life, PROs, and long-term patient outcomes
  • Evidence of the treatment’s ability to deliver the best possible outcomes at the lowest possible cost to the healthcare system (cost-effectiveness)
  • Data on the financial consequences of reimbursing a new drug or technology (budget impact)
  • Information on how a new medicinal product will impact patient populations and healthcare budgets at the national, regional, and local level
  • Detailed reimbursement agreements, including detailed information on how payments for a new therapy, or device are tied to patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness

Investors

Investor audiences consist of entities such as venture capitalists and business angels. These types of audiences are a different kettle of fish in that their main concern is whether they will achieve above-normal financial returns for investing in your company. The content you deliver to investors is likely to come in the form of a pitch deck and needs to include the following to boost your chances of winning funding:

  • How much funding your biotech/digital health company is looking for, and what will it be used for
  • A clear explanation of the existing healthcare challenge that your new therapy or device can potentially solve
  • Information on the limitations of existing solutions, and a clear illustration, supported by evidence of how your new health technology is better
  • Detailed explanation of how and why the therapy/device will be successful, and how it will be brought to market
  • A thorough analysis of the current market landscape and competitor analysis
  • Financial projections and key milestones that will lead to the creation of value for both your company and the investor
  • Strong biographies of the management team that showcase their scientific and commercial expertise

Regulatory bodies

Regulatory agencies such as U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are mainly concerned with the granting of approval of new treatments and devices. So, they expect information on the drug or device’s development and its efficacy and safety.  To gain regulatory approval, you need to produce content that includes:

  • Details of the drug’s discovery and development process, including the drug its target’s molecular structure, protocols and endpoints used in pre-clinical, and phase I to III studies
  • Clinical trial results that prove that the new therapy or device’s benefits outweigh the risks
  • Evidence that shows that the product’s labelling is appropriate for its intended use
  • Information on the manufacturing methods and quality control procedures used, and strong evidence that they are effective enough to maintain the drug’s strength, quality, and purity
  • Description of phase IV trials and real-world studies to be carried out that will collect data on the treatment’s long-term efficacy and side effects

Conclusion

As you can see, some needs of different healthcare audiences can overlap but do vary in terms of the information, arguments, and evidence they expect to see in the content you deliver. What’s more, thorough research is required as the needs of individual payers, physicians, etc. can also vary. This is important as having a deep understanding of these needs can enable you to create truly tailored content that resonates with these audiences and captures their attention, generating leads and sales for your health innovation. 

How to present ‘the human story’ behind the disease and treatment

Introduction

As a biotech or digital health company, you play an important role in healthcare and improving patients’ lives. And while clinical effectiveness and survival rates are important in highlighting the value of your therapy or device’s value, you need to also demonstrate the impact of your treatment on patients’ everyday lives.

Because there is nothing more powerful than a story of how a disease can compromise a person’s ability to do normal day-to-day activities that we take for granted like walking, cycling, and taking part in leisure activities with loved ones. And the difference a ground-breaking treatment can make in helping that person regain that ability.

So, in this post, I am going to explain how you can effectively weave patient stories into your promotional or educational material that will make a compelling case for your treatment to patients, doctors, hospitals, and payers.

Finding the story

The first step is to select the stories you are going to tell that relate to your treatment and the disease it targets. When finding and choosing stories, it is important that you include:

  • stories from patients of different ages, genders, race, ethnic and cultural backgrounds
  • stories from individuals at various stages of the patient journey from diagnosis to treatment to ongoing management of the illness
  • stories from the patient’s close family members, caregivers, and healthcare team – this provides a broader perspective on the impact of the disease

Including a diverse range of stories allows you connect with a broader range of audience, and where appropriate, gives you the opportunity illustrate your therapy’s impact on different patient populations.

Telling the story

Once you have selected your story or stories, you need to start thinking about how you are going present it and structure it. Like any other story, a patient story will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You start your story with the patient’s background, when they were first diagnosed, what challenges the patient faces because of the illness, the treatment they received, and the outcomes.

But there is more to writing a story than describing events and the outcome. You need to apply engaging storytelling techniques that enable you to resonate and connect emotionally with your audience. Techniques that truly put a human face on the benefits of your therapy or device.

So, as you tell the patient’s story, make sure you:

  • Describe the emotional impact of the diagnosis on the patient – how did they react to the news? How did their families react? What thoughts and feelings went through their mind? More importantly, how did they come to terms with the diagnosis, and overcome those initial emotions?
  • Relate how living with the disease has affected various aspects of the patient’s life – don’t just talk about symptoms. Explain how the disease has made it difficult for the patient to stay physically active and have a fulfilling life. Has the disease stopped them from going out and socialising with family and friends? Has the illness forced them to give up work and earn a living? Has the illness provoked anxiety and depression?
  • Highlight how the patient adapted to and managed their condition – detail examples of how the patient found strength in a difficult situation and overcame any limits placed on them by the disease. What did they do? What coping mechanisms did they use? Did their experiences drive them help others who have the same condition? If so, how?
  • Explain how your therapy or device helps the patient lead a normal life – describe how your treatment has helped the patient manage their condition. How does taking the medication/using the device fit into their daily routines? How has it made their lives easier? i.e. lower dosing, avoid more invasive and painful procedures. How has the treatment improved their overall health? Does it allow them to go back to doing the normal, day-to-day activities that bring joy to their lives
When writing or presenting patient stories, always make it about the patient, not the treatment or the device. Always focus on how patients have empowered themselves to triumph over adversity throughout the story.

Create a variety of content

Once you obtained or written a draft of your patient’s story consider using a variety of formats to grab attention and make them visually appealing to your audiences:

 

Video

  • Bring patient experiences to life – Create videos of patients speaking in their own words about the challenges, struggles, and triumphs they experience in their disease and treatment journey
  • Visualise the patient journey – Include footage of patients’ everyday lives such as physician appointments, the treatment process, and discussions with family and caregivers to present a broader picture

Written content

  • Case studies
  • Patient-related sections in white papers
  • Patient section on the company website/social media pages
  • Blog posts

Whatever format you choose, make sure you present a detailed and engaging account of the patient’s experience and use language that is clear and easy to understand. Write in a style that is relatable to establish an emotional connection with your audience. 

Also include direct quotes and anecdotes to add authenticity to the content.

Photos and images

The old adage, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ still holds true. Whether you are including a patient story in a blog article, case study, or website, adding relevant, high-quality photos or images can encapsulate the whole patient story and the message behind it. Photographs can also act as a hook to entice the reader to know more about the story. Examples of relevant photos include:

  • Professional photos of the patients – to humanise the story
  • Background photos – images that highlight the patients’ daily life. For example, photos of the patient at home, receiving treatment, or enjoying a hobby

Consider ethical and legal issues

When identifying potential patient stories, first and foremost you need to ask their permission to share them. Some may be unwilling or feel uncomfortable to share and even if they grant permission, the work doesn’t stop there. Patients are letting you in their lives, and sharing their experiences and innermost feelings so you must treat them and their stories with respect. 

So, when sourcing and selecting stories, you need to take the following steps:

  1. Obtain informed consent

 When seeking consent, you need to clearly explain the patient what they’re consenting to. This involves:

  • explaining why their story is being selected and how it will be used
  • describing where their story might be shared, including websites, social media platforms, online and printed educational materials, and conferences
  • stating how long the patients’ story will be used
  • making it clear to the patient that they have a right to withdraw their consent at any time, and a detailed explanation of the process for doing so
  • a written agreement detailing all of the above

2. Ensure data privacy and security

Not all patients will be comfortable with using their real names and more often than not, sensitive health-related data may be shared within stories, so you need to take the following measures:

  • Anonymity options – allow patients the option to remain anonymous or use pseudonyms. This helps patients feel comfortable about sharing their stories more openly without fear of being identified
  • Data protection – make sure you comply with data protection legislation such as GDPR, ensuring that sensitive patient data is encrypted and stored securely, to prevent unauthorised access
  • Confidentiality – avoid sharing too much personal information that could inadvertently disclose the patient’s identity and make sure that any medical information shared is relevant to the story and does not jeopardise patient confidentiality

3. Be accurate and truthful

When including patient stories in your content, make sure you represent them accurately, particularly if you’re paraphrasing or summarising them. Use direct quotes wherever possible. In addition, you must ensure that you:

  • avoid making any changes to or embellish the story in a way that could give a misleading account of the patient’s experiences
  • include enough context so that the story is understood correctly and its significance is clear
  • allow patients to review their stories so that they can correct any inaccuracies or misrepresentations, and that they are comfortable with how their experiences are portrayed 
  • avoid exaggerating the effectiveness of your therapy or device
  • back up any claims about the impact of your treatment on patients with scientific evidence
  • be open and honest to patients about any commercial benefits your company may gain from sharing their stories

4. Treat the patient’s story with respect

When presenting patients’ experiences:

  • use a respectful tone when referring to patients experiences and emotions within the story
  • avoid sensationalising patient stories to promote your treatment or device
  • present the story in a balanced way without overemphasising the negative or positive aspects

Conclusion

Including patient stories brings the benefits of your treatment to life in a way that clinical trial or outcomes data cannot. By giving an account of what it is like for patients to live with a disease, to experience and overcome challenges, and illustrating how your therapy or device has helped them triumph, you can highlight the real-world impact of your treatment in a powerful way. Stories also allow you to present the human side of your company and its mission, and put together a compelling case for your medical innovation in the eyes of patients, physicians, health systems, and payers.