Client

• Biotherapy pharmaceutical company; Global Clinical Development team

Challenge

• Provide strategic guidance to the client on publishing a wealth of data, ranging from nonclinical to phase 2, to maximise the potential impact of their research
• For a relatively small pharmaceutical company with limited internal resources and high demands on their time, the plan would need to be pragmatic and realistic, with key priorities identified and carefully mapped out

 Approach

• The publication planning process was kicked off with refresher training from Suzanne and Liam at Dartstone, which helped to get us off to a good start. A key takeaway from this training was that not all publication plans are the same – it’s vital to tailor the approach to the client’s needs
• Nevertheless, there are fundamental elements to the publication planning process, which for us included
  • Analysis of the therapy area, the product, and its competitors
  • Literature search and gap analysis
  • Situation analysis
  • Identification of target audiences
  • Journal and congress research
• Publication planning is a collaborative process. While undertaking our research, we checked in regularly with the client to ensure that we were on track and to decide a time for presenting the plan to them

Result

• After spending time researching and strategising, the Alchemy team presented to the clients a bespoke publication plan, which included a summary of all the information gathered throughout the process:
  • Background on the burden of the disease and current unmet needs
  • Therapeutic guidelines
  • Overview of the competitive landscape
  • Competitor clinical trials and publications
  • Existing publications for the client’s drug
  • Identification of key communication points
  • Visual overview of timings for data availability, abstract submission deadlines, and manuscript development
  • Target congress and journal information
• After a fruitful discussion, key priorities for the upcoming year were identified and work on the first of these publications is now underway
• The publication plan is a living, breathing document that we will keep revisiting to ensure latest developments in the therapeutic area and any new opportunities are captured