Helping a biotech to launch a treatment for atopic dermatitis in Japan
Problem context
Our client, a US based biotech, were developing a treatment for atopic dermatitis. As Japan had the potential to be an important territory, it was crucial to get deep insight into current practices and the specific potential opportunities for their product.
Our approach
Atopic dermatitis can be a highly sensitive subject for patients, and we felt it was important to build rapport by conducting interviews face-to-face. With this in mind, the Insight Dojo team travelled to Japan and arranged a combination of in-home and in-venue interviews with patients, and in-venue interviews with dermatologists. In total, 6 patient and 12 physician interviews were conducted.
Our findings covered a number of key topics that were crucial for the client to understand before entering the market. This included information on the healthcare and insurance systems, the current treatment algorithm and patient journey, and insights into current challenges experienced by both patients and physicians.
Overall, we found that there was a significant unmet need in the management of the condition in Japan that the client’s product had the opportunity to address, as long as specific safety concerns were addressed.
A selection of the specific insights is shown below:
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There was a deep disconnect between the patient the healthcare system in terms of atopic dermatitis management There were certain inherent inefficiencies in the Japanese healthcare system that made management of the condition particularly difficult
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Physicians were dissatisfied with current treatments which led to the identification of 5 opportunities for our client’s product at different stages of the treatment algorithm
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There were certain sub-segments of dermatologists with a significant influence on the possible rate of adoption of the product. These segments had to be engaged.
These insights helped the client to move forward with their launch planning and inspired them to contemplate a number of opportunities that they previously had not considered
Insights and Impact
