Key takeaway
Rare disease launches reach a few hundred specialists. How to plan an omnichannel launch that builds trust before approval and frequency after it, with lessons from a haemophilia launch in Europe.
Short answer: Start before approval with unbranded, above-market content that builds trust in the disease area and in your company, then switch to named, tailored engagement with each treating specialist at launch. Keep one website as the hub, run the plan in waves with no dark periods, and move from broad reach to frequency once you know who engages. Measure in real time and adjust every quarter, because in a rare disease you may have only a few hundred prescribers to win.
The audience is small, specialised and in demand. Between 27 and 36 million people in the EU live with one of 6,000 to 8,000 rare diseases (European Commission). Rare disease medicines also make up a large share of new products: half of the FDA's 46 novel approvals in 2025 had orphan designation, and of the 104 medicines EMA recommended in 2025, 16 had their orphan designation confirmed by year end (EMA Annual Report 2025).
The segment is growing. Evaluate forecasts that orphan drugs will account for over 21% of prescription drug sales by 2032, up from 15% in 2022 (Orphan Drug Report, March 2026).
Haemophilia shows the scale. The World Federation of Hemophilia's latest survey, published in October 2025, identified 271,918 people with haemophilia across 135 countries, including 64,823 in Europe, about 85% of the number expected. In her presentation, Borgvall put the European treating community at around 400 haemophilia treatment centres and about 1,200 prescribers, with roughly 10 core commercial competitors and around 15 companies when pipeline players are included.
Her figures match the public record. EAHAD, the European haemophilia association, lists 409 known haemophilia centres in Europe, of which almost 200 are certified (2026). Rare disease care in Europe is also unusually organised: the 24 European Reference Networks link 1,606 specialised centres in 375 hospitals across 27 Member States and Norway (European Commission, October 2025), and the number of patients supported by ERN member centres rose from 161,379 in 2017 to 416,234 in 2024 (Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, April 2026). For a launch team, that means the specialists you need are findable, networked and talk to each other.
So every specialist counts, competitors are chasing the same people, and those people have little time. One line in her presentation sums up the HCP challenge: haematologists "can only spend less than 5% of their time for medical monitoring".
At the 4th Pharma Omnichannel HCP Engagement Conference in Barcelona on 11 March 2026, Madelene Borgvall, Associate Director and Global Brand Lead at Sobi, presented the omnichannel plan behind a haemophilia A launch. Her starting point was timing: "An above-market strategy is essential before launch, as it enhances early reach and provides insights." At launch, local affiliates take over with named data and tailored interactions. Her lesson after the first months:
"We have built a solid global ecosystem— now it is time to scale what performs, enable affiliates deployment consistency, and personalize engagement to unlock full omnichannel value."
Madelene Borgvall, Associate Director, Global Brand Lead, Sobi, 4th Pharma Omnichannel HCP Engagement Conference, March 2026
The plan had five goals: maximise reach, increase frequency, ensure repeat, ensure consistency and generate insights. It was built on "the rule of 7", the idea that people need repeated exposure before a message sticks, and it was designed as a "comprehensive, continual program with no dark periods to maximize HCP reach".
Content came in waves. The first wave focused on trust: the company's history in haemophilia, its vision and its contribution to patients. Later waves moved to product value. Her presentation noted an industry share-of-voice benchmark of 20% trust and 80% value; the launch deliberately led with trust.
Borgvall's case suggests three phases.
Throughout, one channel sits at the centre: "Global website serves as the strategic engagement hub — concentrating traffic from high-reach channels and delivering targeted, high-value content." And the hub only works if traffic keeps coming: "Content update is always supported by targeted traffic drivers to drive continuous engagement across touchpoints."
Compliance shapes phase 1. The EFPIA Code of Practice (2026) states that a medicine "must not be promoted prior to the grant of the marketing authorisation", and EU law prohibits advertising prescription medicines to the public. Above-market content therefore has to be unbranded, scientific and aimed at HCPs.
Both, in that order. Borgvall's team first optimised for broad reach across the five biggest EU markets, then narrowed to a refined, consented audience and focused on frequency. In her words: "Phase 2's focus on frequency over broad reach drove more qualified engagement". Once you know which specialists engage, fewer and better-targeted contacts work harder than more impressions.
Channel preferences explain why a mix matters. IQVIA's 2025 Channel Preference Survey of more than 33,000 HCPs in 38 countries found that HCPs want 40% of their interactions face to face, 16% at in-person conferences and 15% by email, a new high for email. Preferences vary widely by country: face to face is preferred by 45% in Italy and 44% in Spain, but only 29% in Germany and 24% in the UK. For haematologists and oncologists, the channels they prefer match the channels they actually receive less than half the time.
Timing matters as well. IQVIA's September 2025 media consumption report found that triggered emails, sent in response to an HCP's own action, reached a 33% open rate, 30% higher than broadcast emails. That is the kind of trigger-based journey Borgvall named as her next step.
Quality matters as much as quantity. An EMJ review of HCP content habits in 2025, citing Graphite Digital, reports that 65% of HCPs have reduced or stopped engaging with a pharma company because of poor digital experiences, and that interactive content was the most used format, up 33% on 2024 (EMJ, April 2026, vendor data). With a few hundred specialists, one poor experience is costly.
For more on channel strategy, see Multichannel vs Omnichannel: What Is the Difference in Pharma?
Borgvall was candid that not every channel beat its benchmark. Reach is easy to buy; engagement is harder to earn. Her team compared each channel, from banners and email to the website and webinars, against industry benchmarks and used the gaps to decide what to change.
The changes were practical: a regular email rhythm mixing branded and unbranded content, clear targets for open and click rates, regular website content updates, and a focus on the publishers that performed best. A real-time dashboard made that possible: "Live reporting that transforms interactions into actionable insights."
To choose the right metrics, see How Do You Measure HCP Experience, Not Just Reach?
Her summary of the first half of 2025, quoted above, sets the agenda: scale what performs, keep affiliates consistent and personalise engagement.
What worked, according to her presentation: the above-market model, an editorial plan that kept messages aligned, affiliate toolkits, predefined journeys, and banners, email and the website as reach and retention channels. What still needed work: channel orchestration and sequencing, a cross-functional editorial calendar, personalisation with trigger-based journeys, earlier affiliate involvement in webinar recruitment, and wider use of rep-sent approved emails by affiliates.
The stakes are high. ZS analysed 69 first launches in the US between 2018 and 2024 and found that the share of products missing launch-year expectations rose from 40% to 65% by year two, and only about 52% of products that met or beat expectations in year one still did so in year two (ZS, August 2026). Early momentum has to be sustained, not just created.
The early window is decisive. IQVIA's analysis of around 1,000 launches concludes that "the first six months after launch are critical in determining the product's trajectory" (February 2025). ZS adds that when a launch misses, analyst estimates are typically cut by about 40% in year one and about 60% by year two (June 2026). Both point to the same conclusion as Borgvall: build reach and insight before approval, so the first six months start from a running position.
Veeva's 2025 Pulse data points the same way: approved content is used in less than half of HCP meetings, yet content-driven engagement more than doubles treatment adoption.
For a related view on scarce HCP attention, see KOL vs DOL: What Is a Digital Opinion Leader in Pharma?
These topics will be discussed at the 5th Pharma Omnichannel HCP Engagement Conference in Barcelona on 10–11 March 2027.
Header photo: Testalize.me on Unsplash.
It is activity run by the global team before or alongside local launches, usually unbranded disease and company content delivered through publishers, congresses, newsletters and a central website. It builds early reach and shows which HCPs are interested.
No. In Europe a medicine must not be promoted before marketing authorisation. Companies can share balanced scientific information and unbranded disease content with HCPs, within the EFPIA Code and national rules.
There is no single answer, but in the haemophilia launch Borgvall presented, banners, email and the website delivered reach and retention, and webinars added depth. Face-to-face contact remains the most preferred channel for HCPs overall (IQVIA, 2025).
Often very few. In European haemophilia, Borgvall's presentation cited about 400 treatment centres and around 1,200 prescribers.
On average 614 days from EU authorisation to availability for orphan medicines, with only 43% of those authorised in 2021–2024 available by the end of 2025. Waits vary widely by country, so launch sequencing has to follow reimbursement timelines (EFPIA Patients W.A.I.T. Indicator 2025, published May 2026).
It is the idea that people need several exposures to a message, often cited as seven, before they act. Launch teams use it to plan frequency across channels rather than relying on one-off contacts.
The Pharma Omnichannel HCP Engagement Conference, organised by UBIQ Events, brings together pharma commercial, medical and digital leaders. The 5th edition takes place in Barcelona on 10–11 March 2027.
