Personalization in pharma is no longer just “nice to have”—it can define whether a launch thrives or stalls. But most companies don’t begin tailoring the customer experience until 6-12 months after launch. By then, momentum has slowed and the critical window to shape a product’s trajectory is closing. As ZS’s Emily Mandell warns, “It’s very, very difficult—almost impossible, actually—to recover the shape of your uptake curve after 18 months.” The real opportunity is to treat personalization not as a catch-up exercise, but as a launch-critical advantage from day one.
The launch moment: Too important to delay
Nearly half of drug launches in the last 15 years underperformed analyst forecasts by more than 20%. The first year on the market is pivotal, yet most companies still rely on single standardized messages at launch. That approach no longer fits today’s environment where healthcare providers, payers and patients expect the same tailored experiences they get elsewhere in their digital lives.
But research by Reuters Events Pharma and ZS reveals how we can bring the power of personalization to the launch phase itself.
“It’s not just the content that you’re putting out, it’s how you’re delivering it that also warrants a degree of personalization.”
ERICA TAYLOR, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, GENENTECH
Where pharma stands today
Despite broad agreement on the value of personalization, our research found that only 10%-15% of launch insights currently reach the individual customer level. In contrast, nearly half of all launch insights remain generic, with no real personalization at all.
Key barriers include:
- Data gaps: 57% cited the lack of differentiated insights on customer needs and preferences as a top challenge
- Technical silos: 43% reported lacking the technology to support personalization
- Organizational hesitancy: Many leaders see personalization at launch as a complication rather than an accelerator
The measurable impact of personalization on pharma launch
Personalization isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” Done well, it moves the commercial needle. Nearly 70% of pharma respondents in our study reported medium or high impact from their launch personalization efforts. In one case, ZS found that a brand personalizing much of its customer engagement at an n=1 level saw around 25% higher sales uptake among personalized customers compared with nonpersonalized ones in the first year postlaunch.
But measurement remains a sticking point. A quarter of teams admitted they couldn’t determine the impact of their personalization efforts at all. Without a clear plan for metrics up front, companies risk waiting until it’s too late to pivot.
New tools for a new launch playbook
The report highlights how emerging capabilities are helping companies bring personalization earlier into the launch process:
- Richer data and insights: 84% of respondents said richer data on individual customer motivations, needs and beliefs would have a significant impact in the first year of launch
- AI-powered orchestration: Over half identified AI-enabled sequencing and targeting as the most valuable capability for launch personalization. AI models that predict customer motivations, needs and adoption barriers were also ranked highly
- Personalized content at scale: Content was described as “one of the biggest levels of promise” in launch personalization. Generative AI now offers opportunities to scale messaging without losing compliance or quality
- Organizational silos: Teams that execute personalization engines (digital labs, omnichannel analytics) are often not involved in the launch planning early enough to be up and running in time
“There’s been a big challenge in our industry, where there’s a tendency for the creative to be overdone. And the message is completely lost in it, so it doesn’t land right.”
ANTON YAROVOY, GROUP PRODUCT DIRECTOR, JOHNSON & JOHNSON
What matters most to personalize?
When asked what was most critical to personalize within the first 12 months of launch, the overwhelming response was clear: Message comes first, followed by channel and timing. The lesson for pharma is simple: Start with the message and make it resonate in the way each audience wants to hear it.
Yet while 30% had individual-level data on engagement preferences, only 11%-12% had visibility into customer motivations, needs, beliefs or patient populations. This gap underscores the need to invest in richer, actionable insights.
The way forward toward greater personalization at launch
Pharma is at an inflection point. Customers demand personalization at every stage of interaction, and the tools to make it possible—richer insights, AI and omnichannel orchestration—are finally maturing.
But embracing personalization at launch requires more than new technology. It also calls for new mindsets, breaking down silos and committing to measurement cultures that test, learn and refine. Some pharma leaders believe breaking the old playbook is risky, but we believe addressing customer need from day one is the way to derisk your launch, not the other way around.
As one leader in the report cautioned, the risk is not in personalizing at launch—but in failing to do so.
“The goal of launch personalization is to create those experiences that drive decisions that improve patients’ lives.”
ERICA TAYLOR
To dive deeper into the full research, data and case studies, download the report or watch the webinar. Connect with ZS to discuss how these findings can be applied to your upcoming launches.
Erica Taylor, chief marketing officer, Genentech, and Anton Yarovoy, group product director, Johnson & Johnson, contributed to this report.
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