Coffee Break

back to Coffee Break Index

A COFFEE BREAK ANNOUNCEMENT:

An old client, the Director of Market Research at a large pharma company, called with a serious problem:

June, 2006

Our Client's Problem:
His VP of New Business Development needed an assessment of a competitor’s diabetes drug which was recently marketed in EU countries but would probably not launch in the US until Q2:07. The trouble was that the VP had waited until the last minute and now he needed to plan a competitive strategy and present it at a high-level meeting in just three weeks. “For crying out loud,” our client said, “we’re talking diabetes here. A nice little qual sample of 5 docs per country is meaningless. In the time we have, can you do anything meaningful?”


The Rood Solution:
The problem was tailor-made for Rood’s TwinTrack International service. We recommended a sample of 235 physicians, segmented as follows: 35 in-depth telephone interviews (5 in each G5 country, conducted in the native language, and 10 domestic telephone interviews). Simultaneously, we would field Internet surveys with a larger sample of 200 (20 in each G5 country and 100 domestic surveys). The qual and quant segments were structured to be compatible, so that the in-depth perceptions and comments were applicable to the entire sample.


Our client approved this research strategy and the English discussion guide and questionnaire were written and approved within 48 hours. They were translated and programmed shortly thereafter.


The Final Result:
Two days before the deadline the data were in and we integrated them into a single analytical topline report. The results showed that US specialists were eagerly awaiting the launch of the new diabetes agent, but their European counterparts, based on actual experience, had some serious reservations about the drug’s side effect profile. A clear majority of them stated that in the clinical setting, the drug had not lived up to expectations. This key finding, based on a sufficiently large sample, provided the VP with positive information for his strategy meeting and he was greatly relieved to have the data in hand and on time.