Dive Brief:
- After Trulicity (dulaglutide) was approved for treatment of type 2 diabetes, Lilly went to payers first---an unconventional launch strategy. Usually, sales reps are sent out to target physicians in the immediate post-launch period, followed by a direct-to-consumer (DTC) campaign.
- Trulicity entered the market as the fifth GLP-1 treatment.
- Lilly's strategy has so far proven effective, as two-thirds of people in commercial managed health care plans are approved for Trulicity.
Dive Insight:
Lilly's unconventional launch strategy makes sense, considering that Trulicity was the fifth GLP-1 diabetes treatment to market. After going to payers, Lilly sent out a sales force to target 5,000 US-based endocrinologists. And now it's time for the DTC launch, as FiercePharma Marketing reports.
Some of the core messages for the DTC campaign include the fact that Trulicity is not an insulin, although it does have to be injected. However, the campaign focuses on convenience and ease of use by explaining that the needle in the pen device is typically unseen and that Trulicity is a once-a-week medication.
Other players in this market include Novo Nordisk, wiht the top-selling GLP-1 drug, Victoza--a $2 billion-per-year drug, as well as Byetta and Bydureon from AstraZeneca and Tarjeum from GlaxoSmithKline.