Market Strategies, Inc. (MSI), a full service custom and syndicated research and strategic consulting firm, announced key findings from its recently released study evaluating Nephrologists' perceptions of biopharmaceutical companies. Over 200 Nephrologists were asked to rate the importance of more than 30 sales, product/R&D and corporate activities, and then rank how well 15 companies fared in their performance within these measures.
Market Strategies' MSImage: 2006 Nephrology Study is designed to help marketers understand not only how Nephrologists rank companies they are familiar with, but also provide insight concerning which performance measures are most important to their customers. Understanding how sales, product/R&D and corporate activities impact satisfaction and image enables marketers to better target their resources and decide where to focus their resources.
"Amgen is the clear leader according to both office and hospital-based Nephrologists, excelling in virtually every stated and derived attribute measured," noted Larry Levin, Sr. Vice President of MSI's Global Life Sciences Syndicated Division. "This seems closely correlated with the fact that EPO formulations are, by far, the therapeutics viewed as having the ¡®most impact on the care' of their patients. In addition to Aranesp and Epogen, Sensipar adds to this highly valued product portfolio," stated Levin.
Relatedly, Cera, a new erythropoietin agent from Roche (pending approval by the FDA for renal anemia), was mentioned by 30% of Nephrologists as the future product that will "have the biggest impact on the care of patients." For current products, EPO entries occupied 4 of the top 5 spots for "biggest impact," with Amgen's Sensipar as the exception.
After Amgen, Pfizer, Ortho Biotech, Genzyme, Novartis, Abbott and Shire formulate a "second tier" for overall image among office-based Nephrologists, though performance and perceptions do vary by performance measure or activity measured. Pfizer and Novartis do not have any specific renal care products, but Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients often have severe co-morbidities in such disease areas as hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipedemia where these two firms have strong franchises.
This syndicated study features 202 interviews conducted with office (n=161) and hospital (n=41) Board Certified Nephrologists via the internet. Data collection was conducted in August, 2006. Significance testing was done throughout this study at the 90% statistical significance level. For the sample total, a 90% confidence interval can be obtained by adding or subtracting 4.2 % from a proportion based upon the full sample.
