Pharmaceutical innovation continues to advance at a rapid pace. The FDA approved 50 novel drugs in 2024 alone, and more than half used expedited pathways such as Priority Review or Breakthrough Therapy designation, an indicator of how quickly new treatments are moving through the pipeline. In this environment, commercial and insights teams need research systems, supported by advances in mobile engagement and AI-assisted analysis, that can keep up with the pace of evidence generation, scientific communication and competitive activity.
Yet many product launch research programs continue to rely on the same structures they have used for decades: long, infrequent physician and health care professional (HCP) surveys that remain largely unchanged from wave to wave. As both a pharmacist and a former researcher at Ipsos Healthcare, I’ve seen how this model strains physicians’ time while limiting teams’ visibility into how perceptions evolve between major milestones.
In many pre-launch programs, companies field large, comprehensive ATU studies only a few times per year. Because these waves are infrequent, questionnaires often run 35 to 60 minutes and remain almost entirely consistent from cycle to cycle.
This creates several practical challenges:
High burden for health care practitioners, who are already pressed for time.
Minimal flexibility to explore new or emerging questions, because most of the survey must remain fixed to preserve trendability.
Reduced visibility between milestones, leaving teams without timely insight into how perceptions shift after new clinical data, scientific meetings or early communications.
Limited ability to incorporate richer, modern research elements, since long, legacy instruments dominate field time.
These older structures leave little room for the types of dynamic, AI-assisted or conversational methods that can capture richer input without adding burden.
A recent project at Reach3 Insights in dermatology demonstrates a model that better aligns with the current commercial environment. The client, preparing to launch a new therapy for atopic dermatitis, initially planned a traditional quarterly ATU. Instead, they chose a higher-frequency, lower-burden design.
By reducing surveys to approximately 15 minutes and deploying them in a conversational, mobile-first format, the program could run six or seven waves per year instead of three or four. This improved the cadence of insight while reducing the strain on HCP respondents.
To balance consistency with flexibility, approximately half of each questionnaire focused on core KPIs necessary for tracking trajectory and readiness for launch.
The remaining portion rotated each wave, allowing the team to explore:
This structure allowed the client to move beyond repeating the same questions simply for the sake of trend maintenance.
Because the surveys were shorter, the team could also introduce focused pulse studies. For this therapy, significant data is expected to be presented at a major scientific conference. A dedicated pulse fielded immediately afterward will measure the impact of that readout, something conventional quarterly tracking would have missed.
One component of the program provides particularly actionable insight. In the first wave, dermatologists identified three patients they would select for the new therapy if it were available today. Closer to launch (after additional evidence has been shared) the same task will be repeated.
Comparing these patient profiles across waves will help the brand team understand how perceptions of the ideal candidate evolve, whether the therapy moves earlier or later in the treatment pathway and how physicians’ intended use aligns with positioning and communication efforts.
The use of mobile-first, text-based and video-enabled responses also helped surface deeper clinical reasoning and emotional cues that are often missed in traditional, text-only surveys. In fact, people have been proven to share more sensitive and honest information when using their phones, something that is critical in patient research.
This approach translates perception change into clinically relevant decision-making.
In prior work with this client, several capabilities proved especially valuable:
These enhancements streamline insight delivery and improve stakeholders’ ability to act quickly, without sacrificing methodological rigor.
As many in the industry know, large organizations can be slow to adopt new research approaches. In my career, I’ve seen firsthand how long-established processes, global alignment requirements and extensive approval pathways can make innovation difficult.
A practical way forward is incremental experimentation rather than full-scale redesign. Many teams begin by:
These steps help teams improve agility while preserving historical comparability.
As pharmaceutical innovation continues to accelerate, the need for timely, physician-centered insight becomes more critical. Shorter, more frequent and more flexible physician studies offer a practical and effective way for teams to monitor evolving perceptions, understand emerging signals and reduce uncertainty throughout the launch timeline. Achieving this balance often requires working with partners who understand both the methodological foundations of launch research and the emerging technologies that can strengthen it.
For organizations preparing new therapies, modernizing research cadence and design is a strategic move. It enables teams to respond to changes with greater confidence and ensures that launch decisions reflect the most current thinking from physicians on the front lines of care.
Reach3 modernizes health & pharma research through in-the-moment AI-accelerated, mobile-first conversational techniques that seamlessly blend qual, quant & video.
Our methods drive greater disclosure of sensitive information and richer, more actionable insights.
About the author:
With over a decade of research experience, Amr is the leader of the healthcare practice at Reach3 Insights, driving strategy and innovation across complex therapeutic areas. Prior to this, Amr held roles at IQVIA, Ipsos, and EMD Serono, where he focused on the pharmaceutical market and led diverse research initiatives including brand and campaign tracking, sales force effectiveness, patient support program (PSP) evaluation, syndicated healthcare studies, and market access insights.