Over more than 115 years, Teva Pharmaceutical has grown into the world’s largest generic drugmaker. But in all that time, it had never redefined its brand positioning. Until now.
The new Teva brand is meant to present a unified identity that spans both the company’s specialty and generic portfolios, while positioning the pharma as a “trustworthy partner to the patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals,” Iris Beck-Codner, Teva executive vice president of global brand and corporate communications, said.
“The task today isn’t just about discovering new medicines and treating illness, but very much about patient-centered care,” she said.
The recently announced brand rollout in the U.S. and Canada has been underway since 2016, when Teva began a soft launch internally with its employees. Rollouts in Russia, France and Argentina have also been completed using Teva’s “hyperlocal” strategy, which uses a different implementation plan for every geography based on insights and research unique to each.
In Russia, for instance, Teva focused on accessibility. Built on the website Teva.ru, it offers unique content for different audiences with specific details, such as a mobility map that helps disabled and wheelchair patients find easy access to healthcare facilities and pharmacies. In France, Teva partnered with a startup to help address needs of caregivers with a connected device to use when they can’t be present.
In the U.S., where people are more likely to suffer from chronic illness—65% compared with 60% globally, according to Teva—the company partnered with Mount Sinai and the Arnhold Institute to work on an alternative care model for chronic care patients.
“This is an amazing opportunity to put Teva forward as a partner and companion on their health journey,” Beck-Codner said. “We know from the research that people want to know the brand behind the medicines they’re taking. They want to know not only the functional benefits of the product, but also insights about the character of the brand and its people and social commitment. They want to know what we care about and what we do beyond the business basics and how we give back to society.”
The rebrand comes just a few months after Teva’s decision to house its generics and specialty drugs under one roof, a move new CEO Kåre Schultz made in order to simplify structure and pare down layers of management. And that’s not the only part of Teva that Schultz has shaken up: in December, he queued up 14,000 layoffs as part of a restructuring meant to save $3 billion in annual costs.
Teva’s launches, though, will be spared, Schultz has said, emphasizing the need to protect product flow and make “sure the sales efforts are not hampered.”
“We have of course made sure we have the resources” to back the rollout of CGRP migraine candidate fremanezumab and stage a “successful launch” of new neuro medication Austedo, he told investors in December.
By Beth Snyder Bulik
Source: Fierce Pharma
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