Find key opinion leaders and influencers to drive your therapy’s success

Collaboration with key opinion leaders and influencers becomes crucial at various stages of the drug development chain. When a pharmaceutical company begins its research process, it focuses on patient’s unmet needs. Gaining insights on existing standard of care and ongoing therapies, access to expert insights as well as market needs and leveraging knowledge of leaders and influencers who have worked on a similar compound or mechanism of action takes the key priority. By understanding which endpoints can be considered meaningful in indications and receiving inputs on potential endpoints, companies can direct their focus on optimum trial designs to address the unmet needs and ensure regulatory approvals. For all of this, building a good network with therapeutic experts, scientific experts, and digital opinion leaders is important.

Connecting with subject-matter experts with experience in a selected therapeutic area, with similar therapies, or those having worked as Principal Investigators for clinical trials of similar indication or intervention, helps pharmaceutical companies focus their expertise to the development of the new drug with less risk and more confidence. KOLs not only bring their expertise and experience to the table, but also a great deal of engagement with other KOLs. Their networks include influencers, experts, hospitals and patient advocacy groups, authors of publications and guidelines, and digital opinion leaders. DOLs play an influential role in creating positive attention about the upcoming therapy among media, patients, and physicians by establishing a strong share of voice for the company. Therefore, engaging with the right KOLs and influencers in different phases of drug development allows companies to put their right foot forward.

Why is AI important for KOL discovery?

To build and expand connections with key opinion leaders questions such as, where can one find therapeutic area experts who can assist the clinical concept, what are the right communication channel for dissemination of public messages, which of the digital and medical leaders influence therapeutic offerings, who is the most potential emerging KOL, who would help create a competitive communication edge, etc. need to be addressed.

To generate insights to these queries, it is important to get a real-time overview of all KOL profiles. Curating such a large database manually and analyzing KOL networks and engagements – in the past, the present, and potentially in the future – is nearly impossible. There are more than 20 million key opinion leaders, digital opinion leaders, thought leaders, etc. and many who are still emerging. Sorting and filtering this large database of connections to focus on the right KOLs for you, is even more a herculean task if not supported with artificial intelligence. To find KOLs who have work experience in your chosen indication, who support your mechanism of action, and who have access to the populations most likely to drive benefit from your therapy, leveraging AI technologies such as network analysis and machine learning is required.

Innoplexus created an engine for discovery of top and emerging KOLs – Ontosight^Ⓡ Influence – an intuitive AI engine for discovery of use-case specific researchers, investigators, and key opinion leaders for drug development projects.

Ontosight^Ⓡ Influence: An AI-enabled KOL discovery engine

Ontosight^Ⓡ Influence leverages network analysis to visualize network connections of KOLs and their relative influence through intuitive, automated power maps to find the KOL with the maximum reach and connectivity. The module allows users to identify networks of top, second-tier, or emerging KOLs and dive deep into their always up-to-date comprehensive profiles and connections to strategize meaningful engagements. Users can prioritize KOLs to meet precise needs across any disease area, rare diseases, or geography and get real-time updates on your favorite KOLs with only relevant, targeted information valuable to them.

The engine facilitates customization of metrics such as geography, therapeutic area, and subtype to help identify KOLs involved at different stages of drug development such as clinical trials, digital information dissemination, and medical congresses. By using artificial intelligence, time consuming processes such as finding top speakers at conferences, therapeutic area experts to engage with, and digital opinion leaders are accelerated. Social network analysis allows to get an overview of connections between top and emerging KOLs. The module helps in developing actionable engagement plans based on KOL and influencers’ association with patient advocacy groups, hospitals, physician societies, guidelines, HTA bodies and regulatory authorities through a holistic profile overview.

Connecting with researchers and thought leaders of interest can enable pharmaceutical companies to expand their circle of influence as well as truly make an impact while commercializing a new therapy.

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