WHAT ARE SOME OF THE
challenges involved in
marketing a pharmaceutical
product, and in what ways
is it different from
marketing products in other industries?
Varun Nanda, Senior Director of Sales
and Marketing in the Oncology
Division of Genentech, knows firsthand.

Nanda’s extensive history of
marketing in the pharmaceutical
industry began at a company called
Enzon, where he first broke into the
biotech arena. “The last time I studied
biology was in high school. So I came
into Enzon and learned the biotech
business from scratch. Enzon’s CEO
enrolled me in a number of courses on
subjects like biology, chemistry, and
drug development. I was the only
marketer in those classes, and what I
learned from Enzon has held me in
good stead ever since,” explains Nanda.

He then moved on to Copenhagenbased
Novo Nordisk, where he
managed its insulin business for some
time.Then, in 1997, he came to the public
biotech company, Genentech, originally
working in the marketing department of
Genentech’s Endocrinology Division.
“Genentech wasn’t particularly successful
in the endocrinology space. The biology
was sound, but the data just didn’t pan
out and the trials were too complicated,”
says Nanda.

After spending several years in the
Endocrinology Division of Genentech,
he moved to the much more successful
Oncology Division in the spring of
2001, where he has been ever since.
Nanda is, therefore, responsible for
marketing Genentech’s celebrated
drug, Herceptin, which is used to treat
HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer.

How does marketing Herceptin
compare to his previous job at Novo
Nordisk, where he was responsible for
marketing insulin? “Marketing Herceptin
requires a totally different strategy from
marketing insulin. The insulin business
at Novo Nordisk was based on a huge
patient population—Type I diabetics—
and a very low pricing strategy since
there was intense competition. Selling
insulin required essentially a volumeoriented
strategy. With Herceptin, on
the other hand, the marketing strategy
is quite different. Here at Genentech,
we’re creating markets rather than
fighting for market share, which is what
I was doing at Novo Nordisk,” explains
Nanda.

In fact, he claims that Herceptin has
no competitors. Nanda says, “Since
Herceptin is used in combination with
other chemotherapy drugs in breast
cancer treatment, it doesn’t displace
any existing products.We only change
treatment patterns, leading to a minor
impact on the sales of other products.
No other drug on the market competes
with Herceptin.”

And while his marketing efforts at
Novo Nordisk may have been intimately
involved with the end-user—namely,
the diabetics—the target audience for
Herceptin marketing is the physicians
rather than the patients themselves.
Nanda is quick to point out, however,
that this doesn’t mean that the patient is
neglected. “Due to the complexity and
technicalities of cancer treatment, the
marketing of Herceptin is directed
toward physicians, who can then decide
how best to administer the drug to their
patients. But we don’t lose sight of our
goal: that is, to help cancer patients.We
bring in patients to our sales training
classes. Our organization is built upon
people who really want to make a
difference in people’s lives,” says Nanda.

He also points out that marketing
drugs is quite different from marketing
products in other industries. “Drug
marketing is heavily regulated for the
right reasons. It’s not like soap. The
claims must be absolutely precise and
appropriate. For instance, data has
shown that we have a survival advantage
using Herceptin—but only in the
metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer
setting. It has not been proven that we
have a survival advantage for patients
with breast cancer at an earlier stage of
the disease. Therefore, we can’t make a
bridge between the two areas. But if,
say, soap is being used by one segment
of the population, you can say, ‘it’s good
for everyone.’ You can’t do that in the
pharmaceutical industry, and rightly so.
You have to go out and collect data to
support each claim you make,” explains
Nanda.

Even the brand name, he points out,
is subject to intense regulative scrutiny.
“The brand name must actually be
approved by the FDA since there might
be confusion in prescribing drugs if two
drugs have very similar names. But in
terms of coming up with a brand name
in the first place, it’s quite similar to
developing a brand name in other
industries.We use a naming agency and
ask a number of basic questions: is it
easy to prescribe? Is it easy to

remember? What does the brand
communicate? We ask the same
questions as in other industries, like in
branding a car,” points out Nanda.

How has the drug marketing scene
evolved since he first got involved in
the industry? Nanda explains that drug
marketing in the past primarily
involved the education of physicians—
through seminars, conferences, and so
on—but there weren’t many
sophisticated ways of understanding
subsegments of the market, what he
calls “micromarketing.” Now, he
explains, “We’re more sophisticated in
data capture—using technology to
understand our business. Today, we
micromarket—we basically segment
the population, rather than just hold
huge educational meetings.”

Nanda believes that in the future,
drug marketing will become
increasingly “data-driven.” “Technology
will be used more and more within the
marketing discipline. Right now, for
example, we don’t know the names of
all the physicians who use Herceptin.
In the future, this kind of information
will be gathered and compiled,” says
Nanda.

And as for Nanda’s current
marketing efforts at Genentech, he
proudly proclaims, “Every single
patient that is HER2 positive in
metastatic settings, at some point
during his or her treatment, will get
Herceptin. Our growth opportunity is
that everyone would get it at an early
stage of his or her cancer treatment
rather than at a later stage. At the
moment, only 40 percent of HER2
positive patients use Herceptin in the
initial stage of treatment.”

What is preventing the widespread
acceptance of Herceptin use in the
initial stage of cancer treatment? The
same fundamental marketing inhibitors
common to all industries. “Perception
issues and habit remain strong
inhibitors to market acceptance of the
initial-stage use of Herceptin, which is
why we are constantly working to
educate physicians and to remind them
of Herceptin’s benefits,” says Nanda.