Company: Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc.
Contact: Pablo Przygoda, Patient Initiative Product Manager
Location: San Francisco
Industry: Pharmaceuticals, B2C
Annual revenue: $1,200,000,000
Number of employees: 1500

Quick Read:

Actelion Pharmaceuticals' Tracleer product won US approval in 2001 as the first oral treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a complex illness that isn't well known among doctors, and difficult for patients to understand as a result. Tracleer helps patients control the symptoms of PAH, but it has a drawbacks of its own, including slow and gradual results, monthly blood test requirements and myriad side effects.

Faced with high patient-dropout rates in the years that followed Tracleer's release, Actelion Pharmaceuticals delved into market research and learned that it was not competing against other PAH therapy brands, which faced similar challenges. Rather, it was battling patient perceptions and expectations, which were causing patients to stop therapy before beneficial effects could be achieved.

"When we realized that, we decided to fill in the gap with patient education," said Pablo Przygoda, patient initiative product manager for Actelion Pharmaceuticals' US subsidiary.

By helping patients understand what to expect and providing them with a variety of support tools, the company succeeded in increasing therapy persistency among US patients by 20%. That helped boost US demand for the drug in 2007, when Tracleer sales grew 31% worldwide.

Read the Full Article