Beth Bell, HCP Marketing Director – COVID-19, U.S. Respiratory & Immunology, AstraZeneca
Most people are over talking about COVID—including doctors who know their patients no longer want to hear about it. But for patients who are immunocompromised—such as those with autoimmune diseases taking immunosuppresents, hematological malignancies, or organ transplants—the vaccine isn’t effective enough protection and getting COVID can put them at greater risk. So, as AstraZeneca prepares to launch an updated monoclonal antibody pre-exposure prophylaxis that can help immunocompromised patients get greater protection against the latest variants of COVID, Beth Bell and her team got to work to make sure these patients and their doctors aren’t done talking about COVID.
Specifically, they targeted specialists who treat these patients, such as rheumatologists, neurologists, hematologists, and solid organ transplant physicians, to make sure they understood the data on how COVID could exacerbate their patients’ primary conditions and disrupt treatments. For example, approximately 41% of rheumatic patients reported disease flares after testing positive for COVID-19 and 51% altered their DMARD treatment regimen due to COVID-19. To share data like this, Beth and her team developed a choose your own adventure style of program for reps, where they could show each specialist data specific to the patient population they treat.
Additionally, the team revamped the “Extra Layers of Protection” unbranded website with new content specific to each therapeutic area. Other unbranded education programs have also been deployed or are in the works including a KOL speaker program, KOL videos, and an education tool for doctor’s offices. All are helping to prime the market for the debut of the product at the end of this year.
