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Precigen believes that AI — combined with human interactions — is the future for rare disease marketing.

The cell and gene therapy biotech has even tested out its hypothesis in its latest ad campaign.

Precigen, which is developing an investigational gene therapy for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) called PRGN-2012, recently rolled out a campaign to raise awareness about the disease among HCPs.

RRP is marked by chronic cough and dysphonia, damage in the vocal cords or trachea, and can cause recurring post-obstructive pneumonias. Currently, patients with the disease require multiple surgeries, which can lead to complications. Adult patients with the disease undergo a mean of 13.5 surgeries over the course of their lifetimes, per Precigen.

The Rethink RRP campaign aims to underscore that repeated surgeries do not address the underlying cause of RRP – a chronic viral infection. Precigen CEO Helen Sabzevari noted that some of these patients have hundreds of surgeries in their lifetime just to be able to “breathe and to maintain their voice.”

The biotech’s chief commercial officer Phil Tennant added that the campaign is designed to educate HCPs about RRP, especially since it’s common for patients living with the rare disease to be overlooked and face a lengthy time before they’re even diagnosed.

“Often the HCPs in the ecosystem are not sufficiently aware of the issues and the unmet needs [of patients],” Tennant said. “Raising awareness is absolutely critical, given it’s more acute in rare diseases.”

Using AI in rare disease marketing

Like most pharma and biotech companies, Precigen has been experimenting with the use of AI in its rare disease marketing and commercialization efforts, specifically when it comes to targeting the small number of patients facing RRP.

One area Precigen has been exploring is in interrogating claims data. The company has employed AI algorithms and large language models to identify patients and subsequently pinpoint who the treating physicians and institutions are.

This is especially useful given that many rare diseases don’t have ICD-10 codes — a medical coding designation that HCPs use to classify diagnoses — making it difficult for them to track RRP diagnoses.

Tennant deemed this effort to be a successful use case of AI for the company as it helped ensure Precigen was using its resources efficiently in the rollout of its awareness campaign. He added that one of the biggest challenges or opportunities in the rare disease space is making sure a firm’s landscape assessment and market insight work upfront is as robust as possible.

“That’s so when you do start messaging, campaigning, raising awareness and ultimately promoting, you’re doing that in the right place where it’s going to have the most impact,” Tennant said. “That’s where AI technology has certainly come in handy for us.”

Future trends in rare disease marketing

Looking to the future of AI in the biotech world, Tennant declared the technology is here to stay, though he acknowledged that the industry still hasn’t fully wrapped its head around its potential.

“Everyone talks a good game when it comes to AI, but truly extracting the value of AI is tricky in practice, and a lot of companies are piloting and developing use cases to try and get there,” Tennant explained.

He emphasized that biotechs will need to continue relying on human sales reps — ideally in-person reps — in tandem with AI. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant shift to virtual sales rep meetings and novel technological options, Tennant noted that “many physicians realized they missed the human interaction — particularly in rare disease.” 

Recognizing this, he said AI can help interrogate large databases of patient and HCP information, while human interactions can help companies educate physicians on the innovation of their therapies.

“Technology, AI and human interaction will amplify each other,” Tennant said. “It’s about being relevant and earning the right to have a clinical or promotional conversation with the customer. If you don’t earn that right by being tailored in your messaging, you’re always going to struggle — that’s where I think AI can help.”

When it comes to other future trends in rare disease marketing, Tennant pointed to the rising influence of social media and the improvement of overall health literacy among the public.

“You can generate many more compelling patient stories, and I think those are coming to the fore in many of the marketing efforts that I’m seeing,” Tennant said. “Their ability to share their stories and have a voice is something that I think the industry needs to embrace and utilize.”

PRGN-2012 currently holds a FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation as well as an Orphan Drug designation and has a Prescription Drug User Fee Act date in August.