“This was my 1st launch as the HCP Marketing Lead and I felt that Magic Hat Consulting was a great partner that helped bring core launch expertise and guidance, helping keep us organized and tenacious as we all navigated the CDC recommendation activities, label questions, manufacturing shutdowns and changes in our competitive landscape.”
– Merck Launch Lead
The Business Problem
A Fortune 100 Global Pharmaceutical Company sought to bring to market new pneumococcal vaccines. The vaccines offer broader disease coverage than currently available, in two distinct market segments: adult (18+) and pediatric (infant). The product, released separately in both market segments, was projected to generate blockbuster revenue (>1B per year) and considered critical for the company.
The key considerations for both launches were launching into a competitive marketplace and doing so at a pace that would help provide a competitive edge.
The company needed an experienced partner to create a launch strategy and turned to Magic Hat Consulting to create and execute an Agile Launch Plan that was considerate of the company’s goals and objectives. Magic Hat quickly engaged, leveraged the company’s standard Launch Excellence Playbook, created a detailed launch plan and moved into execution phase in short order.
Addressing the Issues: Strategy, Partnership & Expertise
Magic Hat developed cohesive strategies and scenario plans that quickly integrated stakeholder feedback to enable the organization to remain nimble and keep pace with the evolving competitive landscape.
To ensure alignment with the company’s vision, Magic Hat partnered to deploy several agile principles, including monthly sprint review meetings, frequent retrospective meetings and daily standups during times of peak workload (e.g. around PDUFA).
In addition to the typical Launch Excellence activities, Magic Hat assumed a leadership role in areas where skill or resource gaps existed:
Addressing the Issues: Strategy, Partnership and Expertise
Managed inventory cutover for a packaging redesign
Designed and managed implementation of the launch KPI dashboard
Liaison between the pediatric and adult vaccines teams
Delivering Successful Outcomes
Received FDA approval & CDC recommendations of both the adult and Pediatric indication, expectations remain high or blockbuster revenue for the pediatric indication.
The launch remained on track and the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED) order to the CDC Vaccines for the Children Program was delivered on time.
Cross-functional areas were able to understand and quickly respond to all important, updated information as a result of the launch team’s creation of a timeline that integrated scenario planning.
Optimized the Standard client Launch Excellence Playbook to reflect the vaccines therapeutic category and key learnings from timing and interactions with the CDC and manufacturing.