Kathy Sue Bennett
Product Manager
Medexus Pharma
Helping Shine a Light on Tumors
Kathy Sue Bennett’s journey to launch Gleolan began in March 2018 when she arrived at NX Development Corp (NXDC) as a Senior Marketing Manager. She dove head-first into her Gleolan education, learning from its mechanism, competitive products, marketplace usage and attitudes, clinical data, market access, potential specialty pharmacy partnerships, KOLs, and more. In March 2022, she thought her mission to launch Gleolan was completed when Medexus purchased the U.S. commercialization and marketing rights to the brand. But she was wrong.
During discovery and negotiations that led up to the Gleolan sale, Medexus leadership had frequent interactions with Kathy Sue and came to appreciate her work ethic, depth of product knowledge, connections with KOLs, and her belief in the true value Gleolan brings to neurosurgeons and their glioma patients. The Medexus team hired Kathy Sue as the Product Manager who would relaunch the brand using her learnings from the first time around.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadliest primary brain tumor. Extent of resection (EOR) has repeatedly been correlated with improved survival: the more tumor resected, the better. Gleolan provides surgeons with direct, real-time tumor visibility in high-grade glioma surgeries, so they can clearly see the defined edges of a glioma tumor and skillfully cut their way to complete resection the first time. But Kathy Sue recognized any campaign could not disparage the tools surgeons already use; instead, she had to show how Gleolan fills in the gaps in their current visualization plan.
The relaunch campaign leveraged the serious and infiltrative nature of glioma tumors by providing powerful images of monsters that can hide in plain light but are revealed when you illuminate with Gleolan. The headline: “SEE MORE. RESECT MORE.” The campaign was dispersed across journal ads, digital banner ads, emails, interactive visual aids, national conferences, and more.
As a result, Kathy Sue brought Gleolan from moderate awareness and moderate need to nearly complete awareness and high desire. Finally, her journey to launch (and relaunch) Gleolan was complete.
