Truvada Case Study

Truvada, a Gilead product, is a combination pill composed of two of its antiviral drugs - Viread and Emtriva. It is used in HIV treatment as a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. It has been launched in the US and is now plans to launch in France, Germany and Spain in an order and a manner that would maximize its commercial success.

Gilead must position Truvada as a convenient once a day dosing drug with added benefits over its competitor drugs. This would include the results of the study 934. Different aspects must be emphasized upon based on who Truvada is being promoted among. Amongst the patients Truvada should be positioned as drug with increased efficacy, fewer side effects and having an easy to follow regimen. The payers would be more interested in its pricing and superiority over existing treatment. Gilead's comparative study with Combivir, which currently holds the highest market share in Europe would be indicative of its superiority. Physicians would also be interested in clinical data indicative of better efficacy. Truvada not only demonstrated greater virological response but a better tolerance for the drug combination and better compliance to the treatment regimen. These are properties physicians would consider carefully given the chances of the virus developing resistance to a drug due to non-compliance by the patient. High level of adherence to the treatment regimen is a major requirement for the disease The FDA approval and uptake in the US market could also be used to promote Truvada.

Specific strategies could also be employed to increase the awareness of HIV/AIDS among the public, especially in Spain and France. This is because of the huge number of prevalent cases that haven't been diagnosed yet. It comes up to around 50% in Spain and 30% in France. Working with Non Profit Organizations and Patient Advocacy Groups in this respect could help bring more patients under treatment and increase the market size. Awareness camps, advertising and broadcasting could be used to highlight the consequences of the disease and the need to seek a physician for early diagnosis and effective treatment. This would also help Gilead promote their brand further and gain customer confidence.

Patient Advocacy Groups also play an active role in reimbursement and health policy. These groups represent patient views. One of the main difficulty patients face is the difficulty to comply with the high level treatment regimen and the side effects of the drugs. These are areas where Truvada has shown superiority over its competitors. Truvada could also be promoted with respect to its component drug Viread which had a market share of 21% with many benefits regarding its dosing, efficacy, fewer side effects and better likeliness to adhere to the treatment schedule. Furthermore, the FDA label suggesting that patients could take Truvada in place of Viread and Epivir combination to improve compliance and reduce viral resistance in the non-compliant patients is another aspect worth highlighting.

The likely order that Gilead should follow for their launch is Germany, Spain and France. The price in Germany could be the component price sum with a maximum of 5% rebate. Even