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Insight on Marketing CAR-T Therapy

Insight on Marketing CAR-T Therapy

Barry Schmader Shares Oncology Marketing Wisdom

Blue Bell, PA October 12, 2017

Each month MM&M asks four executives to share their thoughts on a topical question facing healthcare marketers. October’s topic featured oncology marketing with the following question: CAR-T therapy, the latest innovation in oncology, represents a new type of treatment. What should marketers keep in mind as they begin to market this therapy? Barry Schmader, Chief Creative Officer, weighed in.

The intensity of interest in CAR-T therapies is a marketer’s dream — because the therapy has the potential to transform treatment of cancer and even to provide a cure. This is all very heady stuff, especially in cancers for which there has been limited progress in improving outcomes. While this makes a compelling label, it is important to remember that we are still in the early days for this therapy. The indication for the first CAR-T therapy is restricted to a tiny subset of cancer patients — about 500 patients a year — and is not available to the vast majority of patients with cancer. As marketers, we must tread a careful path recognizing the importance of this groundbreaking therapy without creating unrealistic expectations, which, if not met, have a history of turning a marketing dream into a marketing lesson.

Head to MM&M to read the full article and read how other executives responded to this interesting topic.