Improving the rare disease diagnosis rate in Singapore with Takeda
Case study: Takeda
Introduction
Takeda is the largest pharmaceutical company in Asia and, by revenue, one of the top 20 globally. The company has a history of developing treatments for lyosomal storage disorders, such as Gaucher and Fabry’s diseases.
These two rare conditions are thought to affect, by Takeda’s estimates, just 200 patients in Singapore. With such a low incidence in Singapore, awareness of the diseases among healthcare professionals and the general public was understandably low.
Takeda partnered with ThinkGenetics to launch the Symptom Matcher tool – a questionnaire designed to assess the respondent’s risk of having either disease or help them get started on their diagnosis journey with a specialist.
Challenge
Takeda wanted to launch this Symptom Matcher tool on Rare Disease Day to increase the diagnosis rate for Fabry and Gaucher disease and build its reputation as an innovator in Singapore’s rare disease landscape.
Services
- Healthcare & MedComms
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Media Relations
- Disease Awareness
- Distinctive Storytelling
- Performance-Driven Content
- Video Content
Approach
Both diseases typically present in childhood, so parents were a priority audience. As we were dealing with rare diseases, it was important to reach as many parents as possible. We developed “Are You Rare?”, a digital-first campaign that included targeted ad buys, building a social media community, a paid media partnership with Mothership, and earned media engagement.
With parents as our target audience, we produced an emotional campaign video that tells the story of a young Gaucher disease patient. It showcases the long diagnosis journey for the patient and her family and highlights the importance of early detection and treatment. The video included a geneticist from KKH, and both the president and vice-president of the Rare Disorder Society Singapore and was launched on Rare Disease Day 2023.
Impact
- 2 pieces of coverage in Tier-1 publications TODAY and Lianhe Zaobao
- Reached an online viewership of nearly 10,000 for the “Are you Rare” campaign video
- Nearly 280,000 coverage views across Mothership’s platforms.
