Brilinta takes direct aim at Plavix

IN SUMMARY: Brilinta is taking on Plavix in the market for blood thinners and AZ is getting aggressive in trying to get patients to switch. The website for Brilinta is well done but one can’t help but wonder if why it has to look like a page out of a medical journal rather than a consumer branded site.

The global anticoagulants market was valued at $24,265 million in 2017, and is expected to reach $43,427 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2018 to 2025.

There are many Blood thinners in clinical trials, and many are there at different stages of pre-clinical development. Many blood thinners are still in pipeline which indicates that the market of blood thinners is likely to rise in the forecast period 2016-2024. The market for blood thinners is analogous to the medical, biologics, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology market. Increasing incidences of heart diseases, changing lifestyle and eating habits will drive the market of blood thinners ahead. The restraining factors in the blood thinners market may be ethical issues or the regulatory reforms of particular countries/ regions that restrict the sale or clinical trials of blood thinners in that region. Also, upcoming alternatives for blood thinners can pose to be restraining for the blood thinner market.

Brilinta is taking direct aim at Plavix through comparative claims on their website. In addition, AZ is making it easy for patients to switch by offering low co-pay incentives. Will it be enough?

The website for Brilinta is well done but the home page looks more like an ad from a medical journal than a consumer product. There is no doubt that AZ strict regulatory and legal requirements limited what could have been a great site for a great product.

The other aspect that I am having trouble with is that there are are so many messages to potential patients that it seems to overwhelm users. Worked better than Plavix, low co-pay and questions to ask your doctor can pull people in different directions. The bounce rate for the site is over 76% and the average duration on the site is only 1:05. That’s not good.

An analysis of search shows that 45% of the traffic is from search but 70% of that traffic is from organic search while 30% is from paid search. There is a huge margin for improvement in all these metrics.

Websites are not meant to be static. They are meant to be updated as you learn where traffic needs. AZ might want to rethink the website for a relaunch.