Athenex achieves faster & easier MLR review with Pepper Flow

Customer challenge

Video transcript

About Athenex

"Hi my name is Karyn Bundrant and I’m the Vice President of Marketing for Athenex. We market generic injectable drugs that are primarily used in the acute care setting of a hospital or the ecology department. 

I've been involved in all aspects of the material review process, anything from being the actual initiator of the process all the way through being the final reviewer. Although we're a generic pharmaceutical company, we are still required to submit all of our materials to the FDA and it's important for us to have a review process in place to ensure compliance. 

What were some of the challenges with your previous system?

Previously, there was a lack of visibility into who was supposed to take the next step which often caused significant delays. And to keep things on schedule,we were even maintaining a separate spreadsheet outside of the system, which was very cumbersome for us to keep updated and current. There were times I didn't move forward on content because of the hassle factor. So we would have content on the field that could have been approved upon. But we chose not to. 

How did you find Vodori and Pepper Flow?

We were introduced to Vodori since they are a partner of IQVIA and our promotional review software, ePromo was nearing the end of its life. Vodori’s platform, Pepper Flow, is now IQVIA’s preferred solution, so they referred us to Vodori. 

With Vodori, we found a different experience altogether. Their promotional review software was tailored to our unique business requirements and we received the level of attention and support we needed to be successful. Vodori’s system is intuitive, user friendly, and has significantly improved our overall efficiency and productivity. I, like many of my colleagues, have about 20 other balls up in the air right now, and I think organizations benefit from Pepper Flow immensely given that their resources are not dedicated to promotional review. 

For my workflow, the most powerful aspect of Pepper Flow is the Jobs Board. This is the number one reason why I chose to make the change to Pepper Flow. I immediately recognized how seeing the information organized this way would improve our process. What I really like about the Jobs Board is that I can see what pieces are in the system, their status, and who is responsible for the next step at any given time. 

The other feature that both our regulatory and medical teams have told me is extremely useful for their reviewing jobs is the easy comparison tool between two versions for them. It's really easy to look at that side-by-side comparison tool that highlights every single change which targets what they need to actually review. Pepper Flow has made the approval process go more quickly and has reduced the workload which everyone really appreciates. 

What was the transition like from IQVIA’s ePromo system?

Vodori made the transition from ePromo to Pepper Flow very easy. Together, we configured Pepper Flow to meet the needs of Athenex and set up the parameters to import our legacy materials from ePromo. Then, after a training session, we were ready to begin submitting new material. The marketing, regulatory, and medical teams all agree that Pepper Flow is easy to use and has made the MLR process easier. 

What is your experience working with Vodori?

From the initial demonstration through implementation, everyone on the Vodori team has been very helpful and efficient. We're thrilled with the results and highly recommend Vodori to anyone looking for a reliable solution that can be scaled to their specific business needs.