Vanessa Schindler, Senior Brand Manager, Novo Nordisk Inc.
Vanessa Schindler knows that even the world’s most beneficial molecules will not serve their purposes if patients don’t understand them, don’t believe in them, and don’t follow their doctors’ prescribing orders. She, and her team, addressed these concerns when launching Ozempic®, an injectable prescription medicine for adults with type 2 diabetes, with the Ozempic® Experience Exchange program.
This first-ever program of its type used text messaging to communicate with, and collect data from, patients. While other brands have used text messaging to engage with patients before, this mobile platform did so much more. Vanessa led a team of relationship marketing experts and technologists to craft an interactive program that mixed helpful tips and motivational messages to patients with qualitative and biometric (Fasting Glucose, weight) data collection requests. This approach resulted in a group of highly engaged patients, who reported improved levels of blood sugar control and a weight reduction consistent with the impressive clinical trials, and they also reported growing confidence and satisfaction with the therapy. These results were then shared with each patient’s respective HCP via email and direct mail. This was based on the insights that HCPs generally want to get feedback directly from their patients on new therapies but patients don’t follow up for three to four months sometimes. And as a result, doctors felt the increased confidence to prescribe the brand to even more of their diabetes patients.
This program has already helped thousands of patients to start on Ozempic, guided them to a more successful life with diabetes, increased their confidence, and improved adherence—91% over the four-month program period.
