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Novartis Rethinks Sales Strategy for New Cholesterol Drug Launch

Swiss drugmaker hopes to unlock large but tricky heart-medicine market with broad rollouts via hospital systems

By Denise Roland
Nov. 21, 2021 11:00 am ET

Novartis AG bet big on its new cholesterol-busting drug. To overcome the tricky market for new heart medicines, it is pursuing an unconventional strategy that turns the traditional drug launch on its head.

Rather than seeking to grab the attention of patients and winning support from individual physicians, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant is focusing on the people who run large hospital systems. Its pitch: A large-scale rollout of the drug, called Leqvio, could avert thousands of heart attacks and strokes.

Despite heart disease being the No. 1 killer in the U.S., the strategy could prove challenging to pull off. It would count on the endorsement of cardiologists, who are often hesitant to adopt new treatments when they already have a bevy of tried-and-trusted medicines in their arsenal. It would also depend on the support of insurers, who have previously been reluctant to pay for pricey new heart drugs.

But if Novartis succeeds, it could unlock a lucrative market that has proven tough for others to crack. Leqvio was at the center of Novartis’s $9.7 billion acquisition of The Medicines Co. two years ago. The drug would need to hit $3 billion to $4 billion in annual sales to justify the price tag, according to analysts. Novartis says it expects Leqvio to become one of its biggest sellers.

Novartis plans to promote Leqvio to doctors through its existing sales force for heart-failure drug Entresto. But, unlike other big drug launches, sales representatives won’t play the starring role. “We’re talking about thousands of reps that we’re not hiring,” said Marie-France Tschudin, president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

The company says it plans to approach around 200 hospital systems across the U.S. It wants to help them identify, through electronic health records, heart patients who struggle to control their cholesterol with existing drugs. The hospital would then offer these patients Leqvio to prevent further heart problems, in a process more akin to a vaccine drive than a drug launch. Novartis expects to finalize agreements after the Food and Drug Administration completes its review of Leqvio, which the company expects early next year.

Central to the idea is that hospitals would set criteria for eligible patients and set up systems to identify them “instead of having each physician making a call for that individual patient,” said Ms. Tschudin.

Some health systems already take this so-called population health approach. “That proactive management is not new to us,” said Mike Evans, chief pharmacy officer at Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, which runs 13 hospitals in Pennsylvania. “An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.”



https://www.wsj.com/articles/novartis-rethinks-sales-strategy-for-new-cholesterol-drug-launch-11637510400?mod=hp_lista_pos3