Our team of passionate oncology experts, HRW OR:BIT, provide deep scientific, commercial, and behavioural understanding of the global oncology landscape: helping oncology brands succeed in benefiting more patients and improving lives.
HRW OR:BIT
We understand our clients need a truly collaborative and specialist oncology partner to address oncology market research complexities, who can:
• Fully grasp the market context and landscape for oncology products, e.g., when a drug has multiple tumour indications and messages/strategies that will impact on each other
• Provide materials reflecting depth and clarity of understanding, e.g., with language that reflects the potential licensed indication or line of therapy for the oncology product in question
• Conduct interviews with moderators who understand the specifics of the product, e.g.’ the logistical steps needed for CAR-T cell therapy administration versus standard stem cell transplant or monoclonal antibodies
• Help find the right respondents e.g., treaters of rare cancers, CAR-T specialists, or metastatic cancer patients, with a lengthy project recruit and fieldwork time
The complexity of oncology as a pharmaceutical therapy area and the speed of its evolution makes it exciting and highly competitive.
HRW’s Oncology Research: Business Insights Team (OR:BIT) are recognised as industry-leading experts for the breadth of their oncology expertise.
Our knowledge spans a multitude of malignancies – from rare solid tumours to haematologic malignancies – couple with a strong understanding of established and novel treatment modalities.
We combine our deep oncology and behavioural science knowledge to provide rich insights and clear strategic recommendations for tackling the issues and barriers our oncology clients face.
Marianne Ibrahim
Kirsty Page
Dana Hill
Sophie Bone
Dylan Brown
Victoria Grefiel
Liz George
Alex Bonello
Marianne holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology and a post graduate diploma in microbiology and immunology. She moved from industrial pharmacy to market research in 2012 and found her passion in oncology. The rapidly evolving oncology landscape fascinates her, fulfils her thirst for knowledge and it fills her with hope to see better outcomes offered to patients every day. Marianne specialises in solid tumours and has also worked across multiple haematological malignancies. ASCO and ESMO weeks are her best weeks of the year.
Having joined HRW in 2009, and leveraging a degree in history that leaned heavily into story driven communication, a career in market research seemed like the perfect fit for Kirsty. With the launch of OR:BIT in 2016, she was enthusiastic to join the team and take the opportunity to develop an academic interest in the complex and evolving science of the Oncology space. Kirsty’s particular passion lies in patient research, and having the opportunity to get close to a multitude of different patients, to learn about their experiences and hear first-hand about their challenges and hopes surrounding living with, or dying from, cancer is inspirational. Her core areas of specialism include NSCLC, myeloma, head and neck, prostate and haematological malignancies such as AML, CML and CLL.
Dana entered market research with a background in Decision Sciences and Healthcare Policy and Management, and has spent her 5 years in the industry dedicated to HRW’s OR:BIT team. She has supported oncology brands in both HCP and Patient market understanding, across all stages of brand life cycle, and across both solid tumors (including lung, breast, colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancers, among others), as well as hematological malignancies (including AML, CML, MCL, and MM, among others). She directs her passion for oncology to drug development - attending conferences to learn about and support market research teams in bringing novel treatment platforms to market to transform treatment for cancer patients (including, CAR-T, cell and gene therapies, and radioligand therapies).
Sophie developed her interest in oncology during her MSci in biochemistry, in particular studying cancer immunotherapies. She joined HRW in 2016, pursuing her interest in oncology and discovering a passion for patient research. Sophie has expertise across multiple solid tumour and haematological cancers, ranging from the most common types to rare cancers, and is always looking for new opportunities to connect with cancer patients.
Dylan holds an educational background in neuroscience and moved into market research in 2017 upon realizing that the industry was ideal for those who wanted to continuously learn new topics whilst having an impact on the broader healthcare industry. Dylan’s expertise in oncology relates specifically to the interplay among biomarker expression, therapeutic efficacy, and patient selection through companion and / or complementary diagnostics. This interest spans numerous indications and tumor types, including both solid and liquid malignancies.
Victoria started in pharmaceutical market research in 2013, initially focusing on chronic conditions and mental health. Her experience in oncology developed over time starting in 2017 and has grown to include research in solid tumor types (e.g., prostate and breast cancer) and hematological malignancies (acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma). She has a keen interest in listening to patient stories and exploring opportunities to make their experience better. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Health, concentrating on Health Policy and Management.
Liz came into market research with a background in strategic communication and a graduate degree in Advertising, where her research focused on activating health behavior changes in underserved populations. She been involved in oncology market research for the past decade, supporting brand development at various stages of their life cycle from foundational journey and launch, through expanding indications & portfolio strategy, all the way through patent extension. A seasoned moderator, Liz has led & conducted thousands of interviews with patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, and other key stakeholders. She has wide-ranging experience with immune-oncology agents & targeted therapies across a range of solid tumors, in both metastatic and adjuvant settings. In particular, Liz has enjoyed her work in breast cancer, urothelial carcinoma, and developing pan-tumor strategy.
With a background in psychology and business, Alex loves putting her curiosity to work exploring human behavior to build strong brands. She fell in love with the pharma industry from the start but knew she was home when she did her first oncology project over a decade ago. Since then, she’s focused heavily on Oncology, specializing in solid tumors with a particular interest in targeted therapies and rare malignancies. Alex loves exploring the complex realities of those living with and treating cancer in order to help her clients empathize and navigate this space as they bring live changing solutions to market.
Case-studies
Our client wanted to ensure that their prostate cancer treatment was sufficiently differentiated from competitors in a crowded marketplace, creating a compelling story to convince HCPs that it is the best treatment available to use:
Our client was working toward developing a comprehensive bladder cancer portfolio. Foundational research was required to understand the complete patient journey across the bladder cancer space (non-muscle invasive, muscle invasive and metastatic) to identify unmet needs and pain points to develop communications and value add service to optimise opportunities for their portfolio of products.
A global client wanted to inform the medicine development strategy for a new treatment in the SCCHN space, in both the loco-regionally advanced, locally recurrent and metastatic setting. This research comprised two phases:
Phase 1: Loco-regionally advanced and locally recurrent
Phase 2: Metastatic (de novo/relapsed)
Blogs, News, and Insights
Boys Don’t Cry: The Impact of Gender Norms Within Psychiatry
Think back to the last time that you took a sick day – at what moment did you become certain that you were ill? Was th...
It’s Only Natural: Dissecting The Appeal to Nature Fallacy
Nature knows best You know the scene. Lulled by David Attenborough dulcet tones, you watch as a pack of wildebeest graz...
Complexities of Chronic Pain: How Do You Believe It and Treat It, If You Can’t See It?
Exploring Pain Pain, while unpleasant, is a crucial component of our survival. Without pain, we would have no motivat...
The Heart and Soul of the Digital User Experience (UX)
I was recently listening to a podcast where Mauro Porcini was being interviewed. He’s the Chief Design Officer at Pe...
The Patient Voice in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Social Media Listening vs. Google Trends Analysis
Here at HRW we love to seek out the most innovative methodologies and ‘stress test’ them to ensure robustness in dat...
OR:BIT CAR-T webinar highlights
Enjoy viewing our short video message, with key highlights and insights shared by five global specialists. To find out m...
Episode 1: Biomarkers in Oncology
The interplay between targeted therapy and a patient’s expression of specific biomarkers is an important aspect to con...
checkedI would like to receive news and information from HRW checkedI agree to the HRW privacy policy
We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. We can also use it to analyze the behavior of users in order to continuously improve the website for you. Data Policy