Published by Niels Christian Hirsch, February 5, 2021

Despite unhindered access to the Danish Medicines Council’s decisions online, it can be difficult to figure out what is the basis for the final recommendations. The extensive data material contains complexity at a level that challenges the strategy work. So how do you get an overview?

Hundreds of thousands of pages of reports and at least 100 variables have an impact on the Danish Medicines Council’s decisions. Both the amount of data and the complexity is high, and it will be uphill for i.e. a product manager, to work his or her way through all the documentation. Every month new documentation and data is added, and it would require many resources for the organization to try to follow suit.

From spreadsheets to advanced data processing

Precisely the challenge with the complexity in the increasing amount of data sent our own consultants on overtime a few years back. Enthusiastic about data, as we are at Signum, we dived into the possibilities of analyzing data at a level quickly took the breath away from our spreadsheets.

The aim was to uncover patterns and identify criteria on which the Danish Medicines Council’s decisions are based. The method was to gather the knowledge from the decisions and gather them in a dashboard. From this dashboard you can easily draw out analyzes that shows trends around price sensitivity, treatment times, requirements for the quality of evidence and clinical added value.

From hunch to operational insight

The extensive data-work resulted in what we today call the Danish Medicines Council Dashboard. Via the dashboard we get insights into the various decision variables in the Danish Medicines Council; insights that helps us and our clients guide safely through unknown waters, figuratively speaking. With efficient, relevant and systematic processing of data, we have now turned the complexity and an overwhelm of information into knowledge that can pave the way for wise decisions.

Insights that benefit both ways

At Signum, we know from experience that it can be difficult to navigate the many decisions and the extensive documentation material. But it makes good sense – also for the Danish Medicines Council – that your organization puts some energy into utilizing previous recommendations as a form of benchmark before submitting your applications – the better prepared you are, the greater the chance that your product will be included in the treatment guidelines

Stronger position in a new therapy area

One of our clients wanted insights into the Danish Medicines Council recommendations before entering a new therapeutic area. The company needed greater insights into price sensitivity, positioning and expectations for turnover before submitting their application to the Danish Medicines Council.

With consultancy from Signum and identification of relevant patient populations via the Danish Medicines Council dashboard, the company prepared two scenarios based on five different parameters: evidence quality, clinical added value, drug-impact on indication, comparative treatments and indications).

Based on this, the company was then able to build a pricing strategy: The scenarios, which the company developed showed the connection between the recommendation for commissioning and for the incremental costs per patient as well as budgetary impact for the Regions. The company was also able to estimate a cost limit for the new drug.

Capacity for complex analyzes

Not everyone has the bandwidth for such extensive analytics work such as the Danish Medicines Council report. Moreover, even with large data capacity, consultancy to interpret the data outcome is most often needed. Contact us if you are interested in how your organization can benefit from our data and insights in the challenges facing the Nordic Life Sciences

Danish Medicines Council dashboard is a tool that, gives you an overview of the Danish Medicines Council’s assessments and recommendations. Danish Medicines Council dashboard covers all clinical and therapeutic areas and is thus indispensable when you need to prepare a Danish Medicines Council process or launching new products on the Danish market. Read more