Laura Steele
Eli Lilly
While Laura Steele has had plenty of success in her career at Eli Lilly, her work as the brand leader of Emgality, a migraine drug, proves just how effective a marketer she is.
She assumed her role during the pre-launch period and quickly helped identify the bets most likely to support the new medication breakthrough.
Aimed at a new and unique target patient, a 38- year-old migraine sufferer, the drug was launching just as four similar therapies were hitting the market.
Emgality launched as a distant third in September of 2018, leveraging unique
consumer-research insights and differentiating campaigns for both consumers and HCPs, with the goal of share-of-market leadership by the end of 2019. The audience has been suffering without new treatment options or category innovation for 20 years, so she knew their unmet needs were considerable. But the challenge was that they were also resigned to the status quo.
Emgality had to work hard to show these patients that it understood what it’s like to live with migraine, while also helping them know that they may be an appropriate candidate for the brand.
She led the team in accomplishing several firsts, including the fastest launch of a branded Facebook page post-FDA approval, the first use of Instagram Stories in the pharma industry and an industry Snapchat pilot.
When the Imagine DTC campaign launched at the beginning of February 2019, Emgality held 29% of the weekly new-patient-start market share. Toward the end of July, Emgality took over the weekly new-patient-start market share lead with 44% of the market. By the end of 2019, Emgality achieved 47.2% market share.
