Tracking and benchmarking performance is vital in today’s ultra-competitive pharmaceutical market. Yet many struggle with setting realistic key performance indicators (KPIs) and understanding their progress across product lifecycles. IQVIA’s Market Research ATU Benchmark System addresses this challenge by offering data-driven insights into pre-launch and post-launch performance.

The solution provides benchmarks tailored to specific markets and therapeutic areas by drawing from vast repositories of syndicated market research. Here’s a detailed look at this approach’s key aspects and benefits.

Defining the challenge

Pharmaceutical companies may launch new products without clear benchmarks for performance. This creates uncertainty about whether growth rates, awareness levels, or physician adoption metrics are on track. For instance, a new product may show early growth in awareness and prescribing rates but then plateau, raising questions about its continued trajectory. Without industry benchmarks, it’s difficult to determine whether such patterns are typical or indicative of an issue.

Moreover, conventional benchmarking often relies on averages, which may not account for market nuances. Averages can skew results when grouped with dissimilar products, leading to misleading conclusions. IQVIA avoids this pitfall by creating “analog baskets” of comparable brands. This built-in, AI-enabled ATU (Awareness, Trial and Usage) market research benchmarking provides what we like to call Connected Intelligence.

ATU benchmarking tools help pharmaceutical companies understand how their products perform. They monitor key metrics like spontaneous and prompted awareness, likelihood to prescribe, and adoption patterns. You get a detailed picture of how physicians perceive and use a product, from trial consideration to becoming a drug of choice.

In addition, ATUs reveal whether a product is meeting its launch goals and make comparisons to competitors. You can analyze early growth patterns, plateaus and market challenges, and adjust your strategies based on the data. Or you can tailor benchmarks that are important to your brand, such as therapeutic area, market dynamics, or product type.

Leveraging comprehensive data

The strength of IQVIA’s ATU Benchmark System is simple: access to a goldmine of data. With more than 1,700 syndicated studies conducted across 68 countries, the benchmark database includes more than 15 therapeutic areas and 70 indications. This vast dataset spans six years and incorporates longitudinal coverage of product lifecycles, from six months before launch to three years post-launch.

By combining syndicated market research with MIDAS sales data, IQVIA aligns performance metrics with real-world market dynamics. This dual-layered approach ensures benchmarks reflect both survey-based insights and actual market behavior. This gives you the most accurate barometer of performance.

Core KPIs and their importance

The ATU Benchmark solution focuses on ten universal KPIs critical to measuring success:

1. Spontaneous awareness: The degree to which a product is top-of-mind for physicians.
2. Prompted awareness: Recognition of a product when mentioned.
3. Likelihood to prescribe: Physicians’ inclination to recommend the product.
4. Consideration: How often physicians consider the product for their patients.
5. Trial use: Initial prescribing of the product.
6. Regular use: Consistent prescribing patterns.
7. First choice: The product’s position as the top prescribing choice.
8. Safety perception: Confidence in the product’s safety.
9. Efficacy perception: Belief in the product’s effectiveness.
10. Convenience: Ease of use is an increasingly critical factor.

These 10 KPIs are grouped into four categories: awareness, recommendation, adoption and perception. Together they provide a holistic view of a product’s market performance. The sample figure below illustrates how the system uses KPIs in brand performance tracking and measurement.

How the benchmarking system works

The AI-powered ATU Benchmark system integrates diverse datasets and creates meaningful comparisons. For example, it accounts for variables such as a product’s mode of action, market entry timing and classification (e.g., biologic vs. generic). This allows users to evaluate performance against relevant competitors.

AI interpolates the missing data points, ensuring continuous timelines for analysis. While some syndicated studies occur quarterly or biannually, the system uses algorithms to fill gaps based on real-world data patterns. Interpolation adheres to logical rules for consistent, reliable results.

IQVIA has applied the market research ATU Benchmark solution in various scenarios.

• Launch evaluation: A pharmaceutical company entering the non-small cell lung cancer market used benchmarks to set realistic pre-launch KPIs. By analyzing the performance trajectories of similar products, they identified the optimal timeline to measure success, so they could adjust strategies proactively.
• Cross-indication performance: A company expanding a product into a new indication used benchmarks to understand carryover effects from its initial launch. This analysis helped them anticipate physician adoption patterns and set appropriate targets.
• Orphan diseases: For rare or orphan diseases where data is sparse, the solution builds analog benchmarks from related markets. For instance, a company might analyze first-to-market biologics in other therapeutic areas to establish realistic expectations.

With coverage across 68 countries, the solution offers insights tailored to diverse markets. Core regions include the U.S., the EU, UK, Latin America, and parts of Asia, including China and Japan. This global scope ensures benchmarks reflect regional market dynamics, setting a standard for multinational launches.

Limitations and IQVIA’s best practices

While the ATU Benchmark System’s capabilities are impressive, it does have limitations. Benchmarks are most useful in pre-launch and early post-launch phases, typically within the first three years of a product’s lifecycle. After that, companies should have sufficient internal data to guide decisions. Additionally, the system’s focus on physician-reported data may not fully capture patient perspectives or broader healthcare ecosystem factors.

Companies should integrate benchmarking into their strategy from the pre-launch phase to maximize value. This allows for early course corrections and aligns with the current market. IQVIA recommends quarterly tracking during the first year, with biannual assessments as the product matures.

Benchmarking provides more than just numbers. You get holistic data updated in real time so that you’ll know when to stay the course and when to pivot. It reduces guesswork, so you can focus your resources where they matter most.

With IQVIA’s ATU Benchmark System, companies can precisely navigate the complexities of product launches. The system’s tailored approach gives you relevant, actionable data and a clear roadmap for success. For further information on this topic, view our webinar on-demand: Increasing Brand Success with AI-enabled ATU Benchmarking.