Highly commended
TAVNEOS® - Successfully Navigating Uncharted Waters and Mapping a New Course that Transforms Care in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (AAV)
Summary of work
Imagine being severely ill for over a year – passed from doctor to doctor yet none have an answer. Persistent flu symptoms, jangling nerve pain, unexplained rashes, chest pain – and strange foamy urine. When there’s finally a diagnosis, it’s a rare and potentially fatal condition – ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). There’s little available information, existing treatments have severe side-effects, and patients fear the unknown.
‘It would have been easier to be diagnosed with cancer’ (Patient insight, 2018)
Apart from a select few experts, most physicians don’t understand AAV and for 50 years medics have looked to potentially damaging immunosuppressives as the only option. TAVNEOS, a novel C5a receptor antagonist, is the first therapy to target an underlying cause of AAV. To launch this breakthrough in a debilitating rare disease, we successfully crystallised patients’ needs alongside gaps in AAV treatment to activate a better-informed patient+physician dialogue that:
- Galvanised patient demand for better treatment
- Embedded urgency to treat differently in Healthcare Professionals (HCPs)
- Transformed an ‘A-HA!’ moment into a movement centred on complement system science
Launch plans built on positive, early patient experiences alongside evidence of efficacy, which quickly percolated through the AAV community and cascaded into significant rapid uptake of TAVNEOS.
Judges’ comments
“This is a launch with a clear and powerfully simple approach. The scale of the challenge in habitual prescribing was outlined well and the focus on enabling the physician/patient dialogue was compelling. Shifting perceptions in an area where the current drugs are viewed favourably is no small feat, and the judges can see great things coming as the course moves through to adoption of the drug.”
