Meet the Authors

Brian Williams

Senior Vice President, Commercialization

Chris Zealey

Principal, Science and Strategy

Part 1: Navigating success during a rare disease product launch

Rare Disease Landscape: Why You Need a Different Launch Playbook

In this video conversation with experts Kapil Raina, Chris Zealey, and Brian Williams, you’ll explore insights on successfully launching products in rare disease markets. We’ll cover key parameters for success and best practices for planning, timing, and budgeting specifically tailored for rare disease product launches.

Video Summary

Part 1: Why You Need a Different Launch Playbook

This video emphasizes the challenges and growth in the landscape of rare diseases, with about 7,000 identified but only 5% having treatments. This affects 30 million people in the US, including 16 million children, with 41% misdiagnosed and long diagnosis timelines.

Over half of recent drug approvals are for orphan drugs, leading to a growing revenue share despite the challenges of small patient populations and high costs. Most approvals utilize expedited pathways, increasing competition and pressuring companies to be first to market or demonstrate differentiation.

Other Rare Disease Resources:

Identify Rare Disease Product Launch Archetypes

Learn how to identify your rare disease product launch archetype to optimize your launch planning.

Meet the Authors

Brian Williams

Senior Vice President, Commercialization

Chris Zealey

Principal, Science and Strategy

Let's Talk

Herspiegel is a leading professional services firm helping biotech start-ups and the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies navigate the path from science to brand performance and change patients’ lives. We are committed to using strategic insights from medical to commercial to market access to solve critical problems.