Case Studies

Disease Area Review and Burden of Illness Analysis - Oncology

Insight

A global leader in the development of innovative cancer therapies initiated phase III clinical trials for a treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).  The client requested The Aequitas Group to develop a Disease Area Review and a Burden of Illness Report for NHL and CLL.  This research would provide baseline disease and health economic data to help build the product’s value proposition.  In turn, the research would also help to support the client’s global pricing and reimbursement strategies for the product.

Strategy

Specifically, the project focused on a systematic review of published studies in peer-reviewed journals across multiple sub-specialties in the field of healthcare, including: medicine, public health, health service delivery systems, health economics and business administration. Through our research we captured: NHL and CLL disease-specific epidemiology data including patient characteristics and segmentation,  national, regional, and international treatment patterns and standards for NHL and CLL, clinical and health outcomes measures through standardized instruments (e.g. quality of life), and health economic outcomes that shed light towards pricing and reimbursement of existing NHL and CLL agents.

Execution

The report was used by the client to gain an insight and understanding of the characteristics of the target population, identify evidence gaps, formulate plans to acquire data where needed, and assist in developing the conceptual models for health economic studies. Additionally, the report provided a series of strategic and actionable recommendations that formed the basis of a health economics research plan.  In this regard, economic models were recommended that were adaptable to a number of anticipated scenarios from real-world treatment utilization patterns data.

Advanced analytical techniques were used to generate a new, strategic, evidence based position that demonstrates an overall cost-savings or a modest impact on a payer’s budget and provides a compelling argument for coverage and reimbursement. The health economics research plan accounted for the perspectives of key stakeholders such as payors and providers that can impact the commercialization, reimbursement, and consumption of the client’s drug on domestic and international fronts. Collateral materials, such as sales training manuals were also developed from the report.