Challenge
A global pharma client of Kantar needed to speak to healthcare professionals to understand the current and future needs of patients suffering from Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency (ASMD), also known as Niemann-Pick Disease Type A & B – an extremely rare disease. Healthcare professionals treating this disease can include Hematologists, Geneticists, Gastroenterologists, Pulmonologists, Neurologists, PCPs and more. This wide range of specialties, combined with the rarity of the condition, makes it extremely difficult to find individual physicians treating these patients to provide valuable insights.
Approach
In order to get the most detailed insights, Kantar began with a quantitative survey asking physicians to pull charts for multiple patients. Due to the markets involved, the project required a multi-mode approach, including online invitations and telephone recruitment. Kantar recruited 40 physicians in the US and 15 physicians per market in France, Germany and Brazil across the wide range of necessary specialties. We then conducted qualitative follow-up interviews with 10 physicians in the US and 5 physicians per market in France, Germany and Brazil.
Insight
Kantar’s unmatched ability to reach HCPs across a wide array of specialties and geographies was invaluable to this project. The in-depth insights collected using an integrated quantitative and qualitative survey gave our client a deeper understanding of who typically diagnoses this rare condition, and what the current standard of care looks like.
Impact
The significant data and evidence obtained from this research demonstrated the current needs for better diagnosis and treatment of ASMD condition, and pointed our client in a clear direction as to addressable market, identifying unmet therapeutic needs, and finding new opportunities to educate HCPs and patients.