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Effective Change Management – The Magic Wand For Business Success And Sustainability

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Change – just as it’s an integral part of our life, so is for any business, including pharmaceutical or healthcare. Interestingly, the phase of transition of such changes isn’t always slow and gradual. In many cases, especially for business, or for a lifestyle too, these transitions could also be faster and disruptive.

The speed of many such changes is now driven by rapidly evolving technology. Or these could often be triggered by some unanticipated event, like the Covid-19 pandemic that we all experienced, very recently. Such changes may impact people working in different functions, in different ways. Which is why, organizations need to be all-time ready, with a robust process in place – known as Change Management.

In this article, I shall focus on the relevance of putting in place a well-validated system driven Change Management process within, especially, the Indian pharmaceutical organizations. Let me start with my understanding on what is the Change Management, so that all of us be on the same page in this regard. 

To be on the same page on what is Change Management:

There are several definitions of the change management process expressed differently, but it’s core concept remains unchanged. One such illustration comes from The TechTarget network. It says:“Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization’s goals, processes, or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change, and helping people to adapt to change.”

Why many pharma majors are considering it now, more than ever before:

Being amid a technological revolution, encompassing almost all aspects of life and then in the post-pandemic area, change is being expected as a way of life and business, more than ever in the past. Although pharma industry a late learner - and is also traditionally late to change – these can’t be now pushed to the back burner, any longer, as was happening in the pre-pandemic era.

‘Change Management’ can’t be pushed to the back burner, any longer:

This process has now attracted a sense of urgency for many pharma players, as we read and look around. Several big companies have already started addressing the leadership challenges to manage and leverage the evolving changes, as I wrote in my article of October 3, 2022, in this blog.

To be in sync with both customers and employee expectations on an ongoing basis, the change management process in an organization has assumed a priority. User friendly state of the art technology is facilitating to effectively address the growing intricacies of today’s field staff role by infusing leadership mindset change in the organizational culture. Emphasizing this point in my article on July 19, 2021, I underscored that such change should necessarily reflect the company’s vision for the future, unambiguously.

Most companies have changed over a period of time in varying degree:

Most companies have changed over a period of time. Nonetheless, today’s need, pace and the process of change demand a data science based customized approach. The good news is several pharma majors have also started feeling that they require not just to change with time, but also need to put more data science based cerebral input to fathom why and how it changed to be more effective in the future.

An insightful understanding is essential to put in place and kick start a right change management process. To give a sense of it, let me cite a contemporary example of one of the successful global pharma majors – GSK. This case study was prepared by the Project Management Institute.

Achievement of a key milestone could make all the difference:

When GSK initiated this process in 2009, the organization realized that an important milestone in the implementation of the company’s change initiative must be to gain the trust and belief of leadership—many of whom were neutral or cynical about it.

To achieve this goal a custom made ‘Accelerating Delivery and Performance (ADP) program; was found to be quite effective for the company. It delivered both hard business benefits as well as softer organizational development benefits. This approach allowed the team to gain the attention of those leaders who wanted both.

Five principles formed the bedrock of the ADP approach:

The following ADP principles are time-tested, contemporary, and several of these were practiced by GSK in their change management process when it started in 2009.

  • Changes should begin with the initiator of change and focusing on greater customer satisfaction.
  • Active support of all stakeholders in the process of change is critical.
  • Include all staff who will be impacted by the change – while defining, explaining, and ensuring accountability and continuously measuring the time bound shared goals, especially the business and financial ones.
  • Make sure they all share ownership for the outcome of change, through seamless teamwork.
  • Make a pilot study before pan organization implementation.

The change management process continues:

That the change management process needs to be ongoing even for successful drug majors – such as GSK, is particularly evident from their Press Release on June 23, 2021.

The communique giving details of the organization’s strategic and other transformation pathways, also highlighted, “New GSK to deliver step-change in growth and performance over the next ten years driven by high-quality Vaccines and Specialty Medicines portfolio and late-stage pipeline.” 

Specific areas of change, as the pandemic wanes:

There are several studies in this area, such as the one published in the Growth Faculty Learn, published on February 07, 2023. Let me paraphrase its summary as follows:

  • Although the pace of change in different businesses may vary but will certainly keep changing. The leaders should, therefore, act proactively to lead their teams through a well validated change management process to gain a competitive edge.
  • Full preparedness for the change and garnering change management skills before the process begins are critical.
  • Advance planning for employee wellbeing, well structured individual and collective communication strategy, deciding on specifics of a hybrid work culture – all based on data-science, are of great importance.
  • To ensure the effectiveness of the change management process a positive workplace environment is a must, which will stand on five pillars - Trustworthiness, Empathy, Genuineness, Self-awareness, and a Learning mindset.

Thus, it’s high time for all to realize that the pharma business ball game is now changing fast for all, creating an urgent need to focus on the critical areas of change.

Conclusion:

It now boils down to an important point, which was also echoed in an article on this area published in the Pharma IQ on November 23, 2022. It underscored just as any living being keeps moving on the pathway of change, pharma and healthcare industry should proactively follow a similar path.

External environmental factors would play a catalytic role to accelerate the speed of change. These include fast evolving consumer friendly digital applications and health apps - newer, better, and more targeted drugs and treatment processes, or even unprecedented disruptions of lives and livelihoods, just what we all have recently experienced.

A study published in the Pharma Marketing Network on October 27, 2021, also reiterated that the main goal of any change management approach is to foster support of all concerned that leads to good outcomes within an organization. It found that an effective way to implement a change is by engaging and inspiring employees to adopt new (and improved) ways of working.

Against the above backdrop, putting a structured change management process in place by Indian pharma players, I reckon, is now essential. This approach seems to be a Magic Wand, as it were, for ongoing business success and sustainability in today’s rapidly evolving paradigm.

By: Tapan J. Ray       

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Keep Pace with Pharma’s Even Nuanced Technology Driven Changes – For Success

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Since 2020, unprecedented global disruptions affecting lives, livelihoods, and business, have impacted India in equal measure, if not more – across various areas, including the pharma industry. If there is one change that is creating a snowballing effect, is the rate of progress and use of technology in its operations.

Consequently, finding properly trained people, to drive the new avatar of technology driven today’s business – right from R&D, supply chain, manufacturing, sales and marketing, customer behavior, market dynamics – poses a facet of ongoing challenges.

This is primarily because, some key business-success requirements have now significantly changed, but many are still nuanced that one may tend to possibly ignore. Thus, early identification of these and placing properly skilled – right people in the right job, who can floor the gas pedal in search of excellence, assume two key priorities for the pharma players, more than ever before.

Most companies, as I understand, are finding this task quite time consuming, if not arduous. The options are basically two. The first one – spot, search and hire the best talent from outside the organization. And the second – spot the internal talents, hone their skills, handhold them for some time on the job, before they take charge and assume accountability for achieving the set goals. In this article, I shall focus on the relevance, criticality, and associated intricacies that pharma leadership may encounter in this process.

Intense focus on the drug industry in last two years – blessings and burden:

A recent research study on Talent Trends For Life Sciences Organizations, published by Randstad Sourceright on July 22, 2022, came out with some interesting findings in this area. The key ones are as below:

  • In the past couple of years, the intense global focus on Life Sciences Industries brings both blessings and burden on the industry.
  • Key drug manufacturers received unprecedented levels of financial and regulatory support for the development of therapies and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19 onslaught on the people across the world.
  • In tandem, the drug industry had to withstand tremendous pressures and intense scrutiny to achieve this task by re-prioritizing their R&D focus, which no drug manufacturer had experienced ever before.

Alongside, pharma customer characteristics and behavior also started changing fast in many areas, and consequently the market dynamics. Many of these changes are still nuanced and are driven by contemporary technology. Amid lesser concern for Covid-pandemic, the ongoing metamorphosis in the world of work – impacting almost all functional areas of a customer-driven organization, poses a fresh pharma leadership challenge.

Thus, for future business success, pharma companies now need to capture relevant real-time data, and analyze them to gain in-depth insight of these changes. Consequently, it is important to figure out how much the quality of talent requirement has changed for an organization, to continue to remain as patient centric. However, before doing that, it’s worth figuring out what kept the wheels of pharma businesses moving during the years of the recent pandemic.

What kept the wheels of business moving during the pandemic:

Several important studies have made dip-stick assessment in this space. One such recent study findings of Randstad Sourceright highlighted the following three, among others, as the key success factors for employee motivation in trying times, which kept the wheels of business moving:

  • Empathy of the leadership,
  • Flexibility in work life
  • Ingenuity of employees to quickly adapt to the new normal

Some of these, or all, may linger in the minds of many employees. They may still long for empathy at work and flexibility in the workplace, to unleash their full potential for organizational success. Otherwise, they may look outside, especially to those companies who can meet their expectations, in the new normal.

In this situation, fostering EQ within the organization to encourage employees committing to the corporate shared goal, is a key requirement for pharma’s performance excellence. The bottom-line is,how well an organization continues to nurture and retain or attract new talents, besides honing their skills in line with the changing customer value delivery process, would be critical.

Need to identify even nuanced changes in workplaces:

Thus, before making a dip-stick assessment to ascertain the changes in organizational talent requirements, it is worth getting a sense from the available studies what’s going on today in the industry.

Like many other countries, the pandemic is no longer an unsettling unease for most pharma organizations in India. At the same time, studies reiterate that it’s for sure that the pandemic related disruptions have ushered-in visible or nuanced transformations, especially in the operational areas of the life sciences business.

Some recent studies, such as, one done by McKinsey & Company on – Creating the workforce of the future, made a notable observation. It emphasized, “Pharma companies struggle to predict where they will see the talent gaps, these disruptions create, though a majority monitor key trends and track talent needs. Only a minority of companies (40 percent) believe that they really know which skills are needed now, let alone in ten years (less than 25 percent).”

Which is why, I reckon, it is now critical for the Indian pharma leadership to identify, analyze and address, both perceptible and nuanced transformation within their customers, employees, and other stakeholders. And then zero-in on changing talent requirements of employees in key operational areas, including sales and marketing – to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

However, it is worth remembering that the supply of quality talent remains limited, although it is essential to catapult the business in a higher growth trajectory. Besides, gradually changing employee expectations in the workplace culture – work-flexibility could emerge as another sought after factor to attract new talents from the millennials. 

The ways to move forward in this area:

Many companies may decide to hire new talents from outside the company, whereas some may look for developing people internally, through well-structured internal human development initiatives. However, the research study of Randstad Sourceright finds: ‘67% of life science and pharma leaders believe reskilling and upskilling employees for different roles is an effective way to address talent scarcity. Additionally, 63% say they already invest in internal mobility platforms to augment their recruiting efforts, while 53% plan to increase their investments in this area.’

Further McKinsey & Company in their above-mentioned article also suggested: ‘Reskilling employees to address talent gaps can help a company retain the bulk of its operations workers and empower them to take advantage of a new world.’ So did another article on building pharma talent of tomorrow, published in the Pharma Executive on October 05, 2022. It emphasized that training current employees who already know the business, and are familiar with the inner workings, would expectedly take much less time to deliver that is expected of them.

I also understand, a few large Indian pharma majors are also focusing on internal talent development as one of the key organizational development initiatives. They are identifying internal talents in an organized manner, up-skill them to shoulder new responsibilities – following a well-charted career path for each one of them. It’s important for the leadership to demonstrate and make these employees also feel that they are of great value to the organization.

From the above perspective, I reckon, in today’s environment when many employees are eager to search for a greener pasture that suits them better, the above approach also provides an opportunity for pharma employers. This opportunity is primarily to retain talents, by incentivizing them with learning, and development process, besides a chance for career progress in the company.

Conclusion:

One thing for sure is critical to ensure that right talents are always placed in the right job. This is crucial to keep pace with not just significant transformations. But even for emerging and nuanced technology driven changes in customer characteristics, behavior, and market dynamics. Thereafter, each organization will need to identify available in-house talents for upskilling, honing and development. Whereas some fresh new talents may necessarily be required to hire from outside or outsourced.

Several recent studies have also indicated that the best strategy in this regard, is the optimal combination of hiring from outside or outsourcing the new requirements, alongside internal talent development initiatives, and charting a career path for them. To chart on this emerging frontier calls for a mindset change. Thus, it is important for us to remember that only permanent factor in the pharma business is – change. Can one ignore it? Of course, but at one’s own peril, because in the long run “What You Do is Who You Are” in the future pharma business.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Leveraging Data Science To Deliver Unique Patient-experience

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“Changes in consumer behavior, many of which were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, are fueling a redesign of the health ecosystem.” This finding was revealed by a recent study of the PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI). The research provided insights about how and why specific groups of consumers used health services during the pandemic – from mental health and telehealth to in-home care and other non-traditional care sites.

The study also captured ‘their willingness to use them again in the future,’ and suggested, those pharma companies that closely monitor these consumer signals and design, accordingly, will likely emerge as more customer centric, as the pandemic wanes.

From this perspective, effective application of data science for creating a unique patient experience by listening to patient voice, is now an imperative for pharma players. Which is why, this approach is nowa key business success ingredient in the changing paradigm. It helps offering a holistic disease treatment solution to patients searching for an effective and affordable disease treatment process.

This article will, therefore, focus on leveraging data science for strategic use of Real-World Evidence (RWE) based on Real World Data (RWD) – on how customer characteristics and behavior impact health outcomes. This initiative is fast becoming a key driver to excel in contemporary pharma business.

Strategic use of RWD/RWE increasing in pharma marketing plans:

RWE, as the name suggests, is the evidence derived from RWD. These are collected outside of clinical trials from various sources, such as, patients and HCP surveys on treatment outcomes, electronic health records wherever available, Wearable Health Devices (WHD), insurance claims, data from connected healthcare records, custom study and many others.

The McKinsey & Company article in this area, published on July 23, 2020, also indicated so. Although, some leading pharma companies have already been using RWE. However, recent progress in digital and advanced analytics allows it to be employed in new ways to deliver impact at scale, the article highlighted. When used by hands-on- professionals of repute in this area, RWE can help pharma marketers understand how patient characteristics and behaviors affect health outcomes.

The research paper on how Biopharmaceutical companies are embedding real-world data and evidence use across the enterprise, published in Deloitte Insights on September 21, 2022, presented an interesting contemporary example. It wrote: ‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, RWD/E played a key role in enabling Biopharma companies to innovate and bring novel vaccines and therapies against this highly contagious disease to market in record time.’id-19,

The approach gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic:

The above research study of Deloitte brought out this fact succinctly. It found; unprecedented challenge posed by COVID-19 pandemic prompted several drug companies to leverage RWD/E to innovate faster than ever before. More than half of the companies surveyed by Deloitte used RWD/E to understand the incidence and severity of COVID-19 and its variants for vaccine and drug development.’

The survey found: ‘Many vaccine developers, such as Johnson & Johnson analyzed RWD to predict COVID-19 hotspots across geographies to optimize site selection and collect data from diverse racial and ethnic groups.’ Besides, RWE also played a critical role for these companies in understanding vaccine effectiveness across demographics such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity and determining the need for boosters.

Improves patient experience for business excellence:

A systematic and ongoing tracking and analysis of well-identified RWD, by pharma marketing analytics professionals, can help in-depth understanding of changing pharma customer characteristics and behavior, more precisely. Such initiatives include patients, HCPs, hospitals and even the policy makers. Several drug majors have adopted this practice, immediately after absorbing the initial shock of unprecedented disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Similarly, RWD can help map the exact available space for demand where a brand is being used and potential competitive value-space for its further demand extension – based on real time customer behavior with changing characteristics. To shape customer journeys, such findings may immensely help while strategizing for more targeted content delivery, with sharper segmentation and brand positioning.

Therefore, finding such gaps in various areas of patients’ journey – in their search for an effective and affordable treatment, and appropriately filling these up with brand value delivery is critical. This will help improve patient experience manifold, accelerating business excellence, in tandem.

A recent paper titled, ‘Maximizing your role as a newly appointed real-world evidence leader,’ published by the ZS on March 23, 2022, made similar observations, as above. The study reiterated that patient-generated insights obtained through RWE, are uniquely capable of adding value at different stages of a pharma brand’s life cycle. Or, throughout a patient’s journey on the care pathway of the value delivery system. It concluded: “Carrying out a successful RWE study is a fine balancing act – but its inconveniences and risks are almost certain to be outweighed by the eventual benefits.”

Increasingly used to gain actionable insights to improve patient experience:

In the contemporary market dynamics – driven by changing customer characteristics and behavior, several pharma companies are now effectively combining and analyzing RWD to retrieve RWE. The objective is to gain actionable insights for effective customer engagement for better patient outcomes, to drive business growth. According to a recent podcast by PwC on using data to shape customer journey, the process includes the following:

  • Focusing on the value and outcomes of treatment protocols and less about specific products.
  • Gaining a better understanding of pharma customers and what drives their behavior.
  • Reaching beyond the barrier in driving differentiation amongst competitors.

Conclusion:   

The Forbes article on the Data Science trend in 2022, published on October 04, 2021, aptly epitomized its relevance in today’s business, including pharma industry. It articulated, data science encompasses the practical application of ideas generated by credible and meaningful data from various relevant sources, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence. Our ability to use such data to our advantage across wide areas in business, would help deliver increasingly worthwhile, valuable, and enjoyable patient experience. 

The article also underscored: ‘If data is the oil of the information age and Machine Learning (ML) is the engine, then data science is the digital domain’s equivalent of the laws of physics that cause combustion to occur and pistons to move.’

Thus, I reckon, both intrinsic and extrinsic brand value creation process, driven by its effectiveness, would increasingly call for Real World Evidence (RWE) based on top-quality Real-World Data (RWD). This is increasingly becoming so critical for success – spanning right across, from product development, launch planning with value propositions – to launch and beyond.

The core purpose of leveraging data science in pharma is, as I see it, is effective decision making throughout the brand life cycle, to deliver a unique patient experience in patients’ journey – with better treatment outcomes.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

Why Do Drug Companies Now Need More Focus On The 5th “P” Of Marketing?

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Astute marketers understand that over several decades, the much-known phraseology – ‘marketing mix’, has remained the bedrock of marketing a product or a service. The ‘Father of Modern Marketing’ - Philip Kotler defined this terminology as the “the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” In this context, the controllable variables are referred to as the 4 ‘P’s - Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which remained the basic focus areas in the brand building strategy of pharma marketers, as well.

With an unprecedented transformative impact within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry during the Covid-19 pandemic – for various reasons, ‘purpose’ is fast slotting itself as the 5th fundamental ‘P’ of the marketing-mix. The changing market - triggered by changing customer dynamics, entails the need to clearly define, to the satisfaction of customers, the”purpose” of a business, brand, or service.

As it is increasingly critical to achieve business excellence in the changing paradigm, in this article I will focus on this area from the point of view of goal-oriented pharmaceutical marketing. Although, I wrote before on the need of creating purpose driven brands, this discourse is with a different perspective.

A classic concept gets a fresh impetus in Covid pandemic:

Peter Drucker, whom the Business Week magazine termed as ‘The Man Who Invented Management,’ in 2005, once wrote: “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer, so well the product or service fits him and sells itself… The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” I reckon, this vision epitomizes the core concept of ‘purpose driven marketing.’

Understanding ‘purpose driven marketing’:

In an article, published on February 01, 2021, Ad Council wrote that after 22 years – a recent CEO roundtable deliberation decided to amend the definition of ‘purpose-driven marketing.’  The previous one was centered around ‘maximizing shareholder return.’ Whereas the amended one, in addition to serving shareholders, defined ‘purpose-driven marketing’ as ‘a strategy used by an organization to center its external communication efforts around a social cause that aligns with its core values. The goal of purpose-driven marketing is for an organization to develop a deeper rapport with their consumers by creating authentic connections based on shared values.’

This new statement reflected the changing culture in the days before the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people are more vocal about their expectations and spending. For which, they are even switching brand or service preferences in line with their values.

Covid prompts consumers rediscovering the value the industry delivers:

Covid -19 crisis has driven the positive consumer sentiment way up, as people are rediscovering the value the industry delivers to meet their new reckoning. This was also articulated in a related article. This was published in the Fierce Pharma, on August 13, 2020, as the pandemic overwhelmed the world. The same consumer sentiment also gets reflected in a first of its kind global study - ‘The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study,’ published on June 17, 2020.

The survey was carried out against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, covering 8,000 consumers across eight countries - United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Singapore, Malaysia. The findings of the research ‘sheds new light and unequivocal proof that the companies leading with Purpose will prevail.’ Vast majority of the respondents ‘have spoken and stand ready to give their hearts, voices and wallets in support of Purposeful brands.’

Especially, the healthcare consumers are now stepping up to stand for something more than hard facts on the features and benefits of products and services – something very meaningful that can influence positive changes in their minds. When it happens, the companies’, in tandem, will also be positively impacted to significantly improve their bottom-lines.

Some key findings of the study:

After in-depth study over 75 brands, the researchers of the above study found that:

  • 94 percent of the respondents value the companies with a strong sense of purpose and are willing to reciprocate through brand loyalty.
  • They are 4 to 6 times more likely to trust, buy, champion, and protect companies with a strong purpose over weaker ones.
  • Only 37 percent believe today’s companies are reaching their potential on this front

The paper concluded, ‘it has never been more important for companies to not only articulate their Purpose, but to consistently demonstrate that Purpose – how they operate, support issues and engage with all stakeholders.’ As the above Ad Council article articulated, the above findings also ‘mean that purpose-driven marketing can’t be cosmetic. It must be reflected in every aspect of a brand’s business model and culture, or that brand or organization can expect to be called out for hypocrisy – more on that later.’

Who’s driving the ‘purpose driven marketing?’

As I wrote in my previous article, today’s new generations, such as, Millennials - regarded as ‘digital pioneers,’ and Gen Z – the true digital natives, approach their health care in drastically different ways with new sets of expectations. These are quite different from the members of the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, or Gen X. As the core concept of ‘purpose driven marketing’ is meeting Gen Z’s one such expectation, this population is regarded as the key driver of ‘purpose driven marketing’, in the pandemic-driven changes in the paradigm of the old normal.

I quoted in the above article, ‘Gen Z people are likely to turn the health industry on its head with their unique expectations for how healthcare should be delivered.’ Moreover, this genre of growing population is slowly but steadily gaining a critical mass to hasten the process of change that pharma marketers should take note of.

According to a paper of the World Economic Forum, published on November 08, 2021, there are 1.8 billion Gen Z around the world, equal to 23% of the global population. Yet, another paper of August 11, 2020, reconfirms that Gen Z comprises 1.8 billion people, making up for almost a quarter of the global population. India stands out with a population that includes 375 million Gen Z people – 27% of the total. Thus, Gen Z and millennial populations are considered at the forefront of shaping this new purpose-driven culture.

The Gen Z populations prefer companies contributing to social causes:

The third annual, international study of Gen Z, conducted by The Center for Generational Kinetics and commissioned by WP Engine, launched on July 07, 2020, reveals some interesting facts. These relate to new expectations for the web by Generation Z in comparison to other generations, including Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. The findings reiterate, ‘72% of Gen Z are more likely to support a company that contributes to social causes.’ It further emphasized, Gen Z is acutely aware that in today’s digital world, anyone can use their voice to ignite change, and that includes those brands which don’t take explicitly socially responsible stand in their branding strategy. Thus, imbibing ‘purpose driven marketing’ is likely to help pharma players to effectively engage this new breed of the target audience for desired long-term financial returns.

Further, based on the same logic, it is not difficult to fathom that ‘stakeholder-trust’ will also play a pivotal role, while delivering consumer expected value, and demonstrating the purpose driven actions of the business – to the Millennial and Gen Z population.

Stakeholder ‘Trust’ is critical in a value and purpose driven business:

This is a new reality, as vindicated by several recent global surveys that include India too. According to Edelman Trust Barometer 2022, ‘business holds on to its position as the most trusted institution, with even greater expectations due to government’s failure to lead during the pandemic.’ This survey – conducted against the backdrop of the pandemic, involved 36,000+ respondents in 28 global markets, including India to look at how institutions are trusted against the backdrop of the pandemic.

Some key findings of this latest study:

  • All stakeholders want business to fill the void, with nearly 60 percent of consumers buying brands based on their values and beliefs,
  • Almost 6 in 10 employees choose a workplace based on shared values and expect their CEO to take a stand on societal issues,
  • 64 percent of investors looking to back businesses aligned with their values.
  • Most respondents (59 percent) said they tend to distrust until seeing evidence that something is trustworthy,
  • 64 percent believe people in their country lack the ability to have constructive and civil debates.
  • Technology (74 percent) was the most trusted sector, followed by education (69 percent) and healthcare (69 percent). Social media (44 percent) continued its decline with a 2-point slide, solidifying its spot as the least trusted sector.
  • While Germany (65 percent) and Canada (65 percent) remained the most trusted country brands, India (36 percent) and China (34 percent) remain the least trusted.

The evolving trend indicates that the new generation, ‘wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they are looking to their employers to curate a fulfilling, stimulating and purpose-driven environment,’ as the article underscored. In that sense, ‘purpose-driven marketing’ has also the potential for pharma players to attract the best talents of the new generation. Conversely, it is quite likely that any organizations inability to do so, willingly, or otherwise, could help gather rust, blunting its cutting-edge for performance excellence.

Conclusion:

There isn’t any doubt that Covid-19 pandemic has initiated a paradigm shift in the expectations of the stakeholders, especially the customers and the employees from the companies. They no longer expect the organization just to focus on profit goals. Alongside, most of them also want the employers to focus, in equal measure, stakeholder value, expectation, dignity, besides social purpose and goals.

When a pharma player is seen solving societal issues, e.g., protecting the patient-health in a patient friendly manner, or saving the environment - with concrete, quantifiable measures, it creates a competitive edge for the company, fetching significant business returns from stakeholders. Surly, the pandemic is further augmenting expectations of the growing population of Gen Z – for responsible business operations = driven by value, purpose, and goals of the society – where we live in.

Consequently, it’s now becoming clearer that sustainable business excellence of pharma players can no longer be just on ‘maximizing shareholder’ returns, in terms of profit. Thus, it calls for the purpose-driven marketing, where organizational contribution to society would provide a significant competitive advantage. From this perspective, in my view, the Indian pharma marketers would now need much greater focus on the 5th ‘P’ of the marketing-mix – more than ever before.

By: Tapan J. Ray    

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Leverage Increased Focus On ‘Self-Care’ For Better Patient Outcomes

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‘People have been practicing self-care for thousands of years. Now an increase in self-care interventions is shifting the way health care is perceived, understood, and accessed, and adding to the many medicines, diagnostics, and technologies available for people to use by themselves.’ This was articulated in an article titled, ‘Self-care during the COVID-19’, published by the World Health Organization (W.H.O) on June 12, 2020.

That COVID-19 prompts increased focus on self-care was also vindicated by several research studies, including some conducted by global pharma majors, such as GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi as you will find below. In this article I shall, therefore, deliberate whether an increasing focus on ‘self-care’, as a critical service to patients can fetch better disease treatment outcomes with respective pharma brands in the new normal. Moving in that direction, let us first be on the same page about the definition of ‘self-care’.

‘Self-care’ and its key benefits?

The W.H.O defined self-care as: ‘Your ability to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider is known as self-care.’ Regular practice of self-care offers a holistic interlinked benefits to its practitioners, which many people have started experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As observed by BMI Healthcare, some of these benefits include:

  • Improving your physical health: By committing to looking after your body and becoming more attuned to its needs.
  • Reducing stress and anxiety: By making time for relaxing activities.
  • Boosting self-esteem: By helping to calm your nerves, taking time to relax and look after yourself can have a positive impact on the way you see yourself. Treating yourself with kindness can also make you look upon yourself kindlier. Studies have found that people with higher self-esteem find it easier to deal with setbacks and are more likely to achieve goals of self-improvement.
  • Protecting mental health: By making changes to prioritize self-care can help to manage mental health issues and might even prevent them from getting worse.
  • Fostering better relationships: Happier and healthier you are, the more you can give to a relationship. This is especially important if you are a parent or career. It can be so easy to put someone else’s needs first, but you must look after your own health too.

Pharma companies also echoed that COVID-19 has boosted self-care:

As I wrote above, besides W.H.O, several global pharma majors have also recently conducted their own research studies this area, for several reasons. One such research, shared by GSK Consumer Healthcare and IPSOS on 20 July 2020, reiterated that ‘the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people’s behavior and attitudes to self-care.’ The study also endorsed, the pandemic has impacted attitudes towards personal wellbeing and self-care. This gets reflected on the increased importance that many people are now placing on looking after their own and others’ health.

Another article, published in the  Johnson & Johnson website on September 16, 2021, emphasized the same point. The Company reiterated, self-care – a holistic and preventive way to look after one’s health and wellness – is more than a passing trend. It’s a lifestyle shift that’s here to stay – one that has only been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper highlighted, ‘According to one recent national survey, 80% of adults said they intend to be more mindful about practicing self-care regularly after the pandemic. And global research conducted this year found that consumers’ prioritization of wellness has jumped as much as 65% in the past two to three years.’

Recently, even Sanofi in its website acknowledged, ‘COVID-19 highlights Value of self-care as a first line of defense.’ The article added, although, ‘there has been a global trend towards wellness for some time now, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated it.  It also endorsed that defensive wellness is growing exponentially with people trying to protect their own health alongside their families. So, there has been a shift in attitudes in how people are practicing self-care, especially, as face-to-face consultations with doctors are now more difficult.

Why ‘self-care’ concept got a boost during COVID-19 pandemic?

There are several reasons behind such unprecedented boost in practicing self-care within the global population. The key ones include intense and continuous public messaging by various governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has emphasized the importance of self-care by manifold. Some of these self-caring activities, such as, social distancing, wearing face masks and other preventative hygiene measures, which have been pivotal in the disease control process.

The national campaigns to tackle the virus with various social measures deployed by citizens, in tandem with traditional public health interventions, like testing and contact tracing, have been widely supported by NGOs, media and key influencers in many sectors. The core message has been, staying home or working from home, and observing government guidelines is – ‘doing your bit’ for others, as well as yourself. The same was also well-articulated in a paper – ‘Self-care and health: by all, for all. Learning from COVID-19’, published by the Mitchell Institute, Victoria University, in July 2020.

 ‘Self-care’ messaging in the old and new normal – the key difference: 

Several pharma companies have tried to understand what factors prompted to accelerate the ‘self-care’ process during the pandemic, as compared to the old normal. And what is the key difference in the core messaging content. For example, Sanofi construed that the self-care messages in pre-pandemic period were generally ‘positive’ ones, such as benefits of practicing yoga and other changes in the general lifestyle activities. Whereas, during the pandemic, the message has been very different. It generally revolved round the ‘fear of the unknown’ that can jeopardize lives and livelihoods.

This factor emerged as a powerful motivator in accelerating a shift to life-saving preventative wellness – not just for self, but also for others. An overwhelming sense of uncertainty put a different perspective altogether to ‘self-care’, especially, for people with co-morbidities or pre-existing health conditions, being more vulnerable to die from COVID-19 infection.

Can pharma leverage the win-win opportunity?

A global study by  McKinsey & Company in this area, published on April 08, 2021, vindicated the increasing trend of self-care among global population. Elaborating the point, it said: ‘These days, consumers view wellness through a much broader and more sophisticated lens, encompassing not just fitness and nutrition but also overall physical and mental health and appearance.’ The Company estimated ‘the global wellness market at more than $1.5 trillion, with annual growth of 5 to 10 percent.’ If pharma marketers can leverage this win-win opportunity creatively, brand related self-care measures would also come under this market.

Leveraging increased focus on patients’ self-care:

The fact that an opportunity exists for pharma players to leverage a new opportunity in the ‘self-care’ space, creating win-win treatment outcomes for all, isn’t a new concept. Over a decade, this is being deliberated in the healthcare space. This is evident from an interesting article titled, ‘Helping patients help themselves’, published in the ‘Modern Healthcare’ on June 21, 2010. Acknowledging that “Self-management is critical,” it wrote: “The patient spends one-tenth of 1% of their time in the doctor’s office and the rest of the time on their own. Coming up with good ways to engage them and encourage them to take control and make changes is very important.”

Interestingly, another article carrying exactly the same title – ‘Helping patients help themselves’ – penned by another author, was published after more than a decade – in the ‘Reuters Event’, on November 19, 2021. This author also emphasized: ‘Self-care offers a new way for health care companies to serve patients better, globally and industry collaboration will drive faster progress.’ It reiterated: ‘There’s an opportunity here for healthcare companies to put patients even more at the center of care and to help them achieve better outcomes.’ Pharma marketers, wearing their best creative hats, will find several novel strategic ways to reap a rich harvest from this opportunity. I shall, therefore, won’t step into that area in this article.   

Conclusion:

Ongoing awareness campaigns, encouraging people to take primary ownership of their own health to prevent any serious medical interventions – both for infectious and non-infectious ailments, can be a force multiplier to protect a nation’s health.

Several ‘self-care’ practices during the pandemic like, wearing face masks, maintaining social distancing, hand washing and self-isolation to contain spread of infection, continues. In tandem, as many experts reported, more people are now using digital tools, wearables, symptom trackers – for self-care. Alongside, virtual medical consultation, home care and telehealth services, purchasing medical products and diagnostic services from e-pharmacies, digital health solutions and the likes are also increasing significantly, for the same reason.

Collectively, self-care initiatives have paid rich dividend – in varying degree, almost in every country, notwithstanding some catastrophic onslaught of the virus in many nations, including India. Otherwise, the numbers could have been worse, as many experts project. That said, as the McKinsey & Companysaid: ‘If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that physical and mental health will remain a priority for millions of people across the globe for a long time to come.’ Being in the thick of this process, the drug industry, by and large, has also realized that ‘self-care’ is crucial to ensure better treatment outcomes. This, I reckon, opens a new vista of opportunity for pharma to leverage, with increased focus on most of these ‘self-care’ practices – for business excellence.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

Appears On Radar New L&D Needs For Pharma’s New e-Environment

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As drug companies were desperately trying to navigate through the operational disruptions due to Covid crisis, the Learning and Development (LD) plans of most organizations, considered so important for employees, got badly impacted. This was ably captured in the article – ‘Adapting workplace learning in the time of Coronavirus’, appeared in the March 2020 issue of McKinsey Accelerate.

It highlighted, as businesses around the world postpone and cancel in-person meetings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “workplace learning is emerging as one of the earliest and hardest-hit business activities.” The paper further elucidated: “Based on our observations as of early March, roughly one-half of in-person programs through June 30, 2020, have been postponed or canceled in North America. Whereas “in parts of Asia and Europe, the figure is closer to 100 percent.”

Interestingly, no one is talking much about it as much as the need for quick digitalization in the pharma industry, to respond to the challenge of disruptive changes. A quick return to employee L&D initiatives in the new normal, I reckon, would encourage, particularly the hands-on staff members on e-marketing to come out with more innovative digital solutions to reap a rich harvest from remote engagement with customers, on an ongoing basis.

In this article, I shall explore this area from the perspective of increasing employee productivity in the digital work environment of the new normal.

Why is L&D more relevant to pharma employees, now?

To effectively respond to post-Covid changes in customer behavior – aspirations – expectations – other market dynamics, alongside a different genre of competition, new learnings in the digital space, is critical for all employees. Which is why, it is so important for pharma players to quickly refocus on this process, just as digitalization. Without requisite digital skill development, corporate performance may look lackluster, eventually.

It is important for all to recognize that just digital transformation of business isn’t a panacea. For example, e-marketing is certainly a powerful contemporary marketing tool that a company must go for. But, it is no less important to know how making effective use of this versatile technology would appeal to individual customer emotions, with personalized content. Medical Representatives of pre-Covid days may not be generally well-versed in this area, at least, as much as they ought to – now.

Some pace-setting Indian examples in this area:

According to an article, published in leading Indian business daily on June 17, 2020, the Indian pharma major – Lupin, reportedly, used the lockdown as an opportunity to train its sales teams on medical acumen, soft skills, disease knowledge, effective communication etc. They conducted over 200 sessions using Microsoft Teams. In some sessions, the attendance count reached 8000 people.

As the article points out, using digital tools and platforms, the company reps were enabled to record a video of brand detailing and share it with the doctors who can view it as per his or her convenience. It also says, ‘Lupin team reached out to more than 1 lakh doctors through live webinars, ECMEs, e-mailers, webinars to update them with the latest medical and therapeutic advancements.’

The core idea of this initiative is undoubtedly worth imbibing, although, it is still not clear to many, how effective were those digital marketing strategies in the form as it has been described.

The new e-environment needs new sets of L&D models:

From the above perspective, the take home message, I reckon, is - in pharma’s new normal, digitalization isn’t just about a modern and contemporary technology. It is much more profound – signifies the criticality of credible data-based, novel decision-making process, offering high yield solutions to complex sets of disruptive problems in business.  Consequently, now appears on the radar a new set of L&D needs for the new e-environment of the pharma industry.

Ramifications of e-environment changes in pharma business: 

Many studies have pointed out to a number of changes in pharma industry’s e-environment, in the new normal. Just to give a sense of such mega changes, let me quote another recent paper in this regard. The paper on ‘Telehealth’, published by McKinsey & Company on May 29, 2020, writes: “Our claims-based analysis suggests that approximately 20 percent of all emergency room visits could potentially be avoided via virtual urgent care offerings, 24 percent of health care office visits and outpatient volume could be delivered virtually, and an additional 9 percent “near-virtually.”

The paper further adds, ‘up to 35 percent of regular home health attendant services could be virtualized, and 2 percent of all outpatient volume could be shifted to the home setting, with tech-enabled medication administration.’ These changes will overall add up to US$250 billion in healthcare spend in 2020 that could be shifted to virtual or near-virtual care, or 20 percent of all office, outpatient, and home health-spend across all types of health care, the paper highlights.

Although, this article was written against the US pharma industry backdrop, considering the current Indian government’s strong push on telemedicine – as a facilitator, one may envisage similar changes in India too, over a period of time.  

Covid-19 could still be a long-haul battle, pharma should be prepared for it:

Echoing this sentiment, ‘The Washington Post’ flashed a headline in its February 10, 2021: ‘Variants mean the coronavirus is here to stay — but perhaps as a lesser threat.’ Elaborating the point, it said: ‘In early December, the end of the pandemic glimmered on the horizon. Blockbuster vaccine results suggested a clear path forward.’ However, thereafter, ‘the euphoria dissipated,’ as mutation-ridden variants of Covid-19 with concerning new characteristics were detected. ‘The path forward is still hopeful, but longer and more labyrinthine’, the news report added.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that Covid-19 variants can slip past some of the immunity generated by vaccines and prior infections.  Vaccines may have to be updated, perhaps regularly. And the world will have to prepare for the possibility, even the likelihood, that over the long term, the novel coronavirus will become a persistent disease threat.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O) also confirmed this point on January 21, 2021. It said, ‘Yes, this is a very important point that vaccine developers keep in mind. Covid-19 vaccines could possibly be like vaccines against the influenza virus, where ‘scientists have to change the structure of the vaccine every year, based on the circulating strains and WHO coordinates this global network that actually identifies which strain should be used every year.’

Conclusion:

The bottom line, therefore, is, no one can vouch with any degree of certainty, as on date, when exactly Covid crisis will get over completely, despite Covid-19 vaccines being available now. At the same time, even after several disruptive covid related changes in business, the need for rapid adjustment to further changes of similar in nature and scale, may continue to exist.

To properly understand these changes, their implications on business, impact on customers, re-engineering needs of marketing strategies and then thrive, are of fundamental importance. Thus, along with on-the-job learning, contemporary e-learning of employees – is a critical success ingredient for both individual and organizational development, especially in the dynamic digital environment.

It is worth noting that digital initiatives are not confined to modern tech-based apps and platforms. The basic prerequisite of any digital marketing strategy is to understand the versatility of its power and core values. This is essential to effectively influence customer behavior and their expectations, for creating a sustainable ‘doctor-patient- brand or corporate relationship. That’s why L&D remains a critical tool for capacity building, even for e-marketing. It will help ensure, employees are able to deliver expected deliverables by successfully meeting newer challenges in the digital space, in sync with the organizational expectations and goals, in the new normal.

Today, when digitalization has become a buzz word for pharma’ success – occupying virtually everybody’s entire mind space, also appears on the radar today new L&D needs for the new e-environment to make digitalization work, paying rich dividend to the business.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

2020: Learnings From A Yearlong Catastrophic Disruption And Crystal-Gazing 2021

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 Wishing All My Readers A Very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous 2021

Just a few days left for the year 2020 to merge with history. It will be remembered by all – as a year of all-round catastrophic global disruption. With unprecedented impact on human lives, livelihoods, economy, and ways of doing things – sparing virtually nothing. The sole cause of which is an unprecedented single event – Covid-19 pandemic. As of December 27, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 10,118,392 new Coronavirus cases with 147,659 deaths. The threat of subsequent waves for further infection of Covid-19 infection continues.

In this article, I shall focus on some critical lessons learnt from the 2020 health crisis, while crystal-gazing 2021. I’ll do this purely from the health care perspective, in general, and the pharmaceutical industry, in particular. Keeping this in view, some of the lessons learnt during the pandemic are as follows:

A. Never allow a sense of hubris setting in:

This is easier said than done. Nonetheless, before the Covid pandemic played havocs with all, many top pharma leaders were, apparently, in a hubris. It was often laced with excessive confidence, if not arrogance. The predominant belief was nothing can go so wrong sans unfavorable policy decisions by the governments. This was against a much-known management dictum for all – always anticipate future probabilities that may impact the business and keep prepared for the worst, while hoping for the best. On a hindsight, this was, obviously jettisoned – lock, stock and barrel. No one was prepared for any biological threats, such as, Covid pandemic, till the deadly virus caught the humanity off-guard around December 2019, as we see below:

The pandemic was expected, but struck unexpectedly:

A pandemic wasn’t totally unexpected either. Therefore, they question that surfaces - Experts warned of a pandemic decades ago. Why weren’t we ready? Just in 2015, even Bill Gates, during a Ted talk titled, “The next outbreak? We’re not ready,” also predicted - based on available facts that an epidemic would kill millions in the future.

He further added: “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s more likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war – not missiles, but microbes.” Gates further emphasized: “We have invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents, but we’ve actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We’re not ready for the next epidemic.”

B. Research on anti-infective drugs shouldn’t be pushed to the back burner: 

These warnings were, apparently, ignored by the pharma industry. For example, as reported in the first quarter of 2020, many research-based pharma companies shifted ‘resources away from emerging infectious diseases into more lucrative areas like cancer treatment. Their business decisions risk leaving gaping holes in the fight against epidemics, such as the one caused by the novel Coronavirus.’

Let’s now take a pause for pharma players to ponder. Are they ready, at least now, with a robust plan – based on almost a year’s experience of an unprecedented agony along with its customers, specifically to counter any future biological threat? Be that as it may, there have also been some good outcomes out of the Covid crisis, both for the pharma industry and also for the health care customers.

C. The pandemic hastened pharma’s digital transformation process:

As is known, compared to many other industries, pharma industry was a late learner in the digitalization process of organizations. The new realities of disruptions caused by the pandemic had significantly expedited this process to keep the business going. There were no other effective options available, either, but to move beyond business stabilization and redefine how they do business. The IQVIA article, ‘Digital transformation in a post-Covid-19 world,’ published in the Pharmaceutical Technology, on August 31, 2020, also reiterated this point.

Elaborating the point further, the article pointed out: ‘As a result, acceleration of three key capabilities is occurring to create sustainable competitive advantage,’ as follows:

  • Digital capabilities with modern technology are enabling companies doing the right things during the pandemic and accelerating the process.
  • Providing access to granular data to support the extraction of precise insights into the needs of patients and physicians.
  • Ensuring capabilities for sustaining relationships. While face-to-face interaction has been dramatically reduced, relationships with HCPs and patients are taking new shapes and are of more importance than ever before.

D. Telemedicine came under mainstream care, supported by Government:

Finding no other viable alternatives during the Covid lockdown period and the need to stringently follow prescribed health measures, many patients were pushed to search for a robust digital solution for health care needs. Just as many of them were already using online platforms to meet other regular needs. In that sense, Covid propelled health care into a virtual world, bringing telehealth or telemedicine toward mainstream care, supported by the Government with a policy, for the first time, ever.

E. Quality of pharma response to pandemic enhanced industry image:

As I had discussed before in this blog, Consumer centric communications, driven by the  ‘hope and confidence as companies rushed to come up with COVID-19 vaccines and treatments’ of all, helped to significantly enhance the industry’s image during the year. In my view, pharma shouldn’t let go this opportunity to reposition itself, to reap a rich harvest in the years ahead.

Crystal-gazing 2021: 

A. A lurking fear will keep haunting:

Moving away from the outgoing year – 2020, if one crystal gazes the incoming – yet another brand-new year – 2021, a lurking fear still haunts most peoples’ minds. Will the all-round disruptions of 2020 be the new normal in 2021 – with no further escalation of the current situation?

B. Vaccine rollout will reduce rapid spread, but not eliminate Covid-19:

Gradual rolling out of vaccines may reduce the rapid spread of pandemic, provided Covid-19 doesn’t throw more surprises, such as, complicated mutation, blunting this initiative. However, currently available evidence indicates, the new variant could be more transmissible, yet vaccines may work very well against it.

 C. Masking, physical distancing, hand washing, etc., will continue:

Besides, many yet unknown side effects, the duration of immunity following coronavirus vaccination is still largely unknown due to the simple lack of time we’ve had to study such immune responses. Moreover, the trials do not tell us if the vaccines can block the transmission of the disease from those who are asymptomatic and have been vaccinated. Thus, masking, physical distancing, hand washing, testing, treating and contact tracing, reportedly, will continue to be important in the global campaign against COVID-19, even after vaccine rollout.

D. NDDS for Covid drugs and vaccines may come: 

New formulations, new Covid drug delivery systems, newer methods to bring Covid vaccines, like nasal sprays, in a powder form for easy transportation and to reach more people around the world, are expected to commence in 2021.

E. Waiting for going back to pre-Covid game plan is a losing strategy:

Vaccines are unlikely to take us back to pre-Covid time, any time soon. Even McKinsey & Companypredicted the same in its article: ‘‘How COVID-19 is redefining the next-normal operating model,’ published on December 10, 2020. It emphasized: “With everything disrupted, going back to the same old thing is a losing strategy. The strongest companies are reinventing themselves by embracing pandemic- driven change.”

Many pharma majors are also echoing the same, even as Covid-19 vaccines have started rolling out for public in different parts of the world. After weighing-in the pros and cons of waiting, many of them have articulated: ‘We will not return to the old ways of working.’ They believe, it’s too early to put a specific timeline on turning that page now. Hence, the year 2021, working of the pharma companies is unlikely to be significantly different from the year 2020.

F. Need to capture and respond fast to changing customer behaviors:

Covid-19 pandemic is fast changing many human attitudes and behaviors, forcing organizations to respond. ‘However, the need to respond won’t end when the virus’s immediate threat eventually recedes,’ reaffirmed the Accenture article ‘COVID-19: 5 new human truths that experiences need to address.’ The massive behavior changes of key pharma stakeholders, at a never before scale and speed, will continue to prompt many leading drug companies to respond to them with well thought through digital tools, to gain competitive advantages.

G. Virtual meetings with reps, doctors and others will continue:

As witnessed in 2020, often for the first time – virtual meeting of sales reps, key opinion leaders and others will continue in 2021, even after ‘live’ ones return, but with more innovative structure and content. Pharma marketing’s long awaited and comprehensive digital foray will continue gaining a strong foothold, entering into new areas, without glancing back over the shoulder, in 2021.

H. More new drug launches will move entirely digital:

It began in 2020. For example, dozens of new drug launches moved entirely to digital, for the first time in 2020. As a pharma leader remarked, with the traditional launch framework gone during the pandemic, “we had to throw out the playbook and really embed into people’s heads that playbook is no longer meaningful. It no longer works, and we have to think outside the box.” She further added: “There’s truly no bigger place for a marketer right now. This is the new world.” None can deny this fact as we enter into the new year.

I. Success requirements of pharma professionals will be different:

With significant transformation of pharma’s operational strategies, success requirements of pharma professionals will also be significantly different in the new normal. Quick capturing and fast adaptation to the changing customer behavior for multi-channel engagement digital platforms, will be fundamentally important – not just for business excellence, but for its long-term sustainability, as well. This is a totally new and highly cerebral strategic ballgame, where obsolescence of cutting-edge technology is much faster than anything in the tradition driven old normal.

J. More pharma companies will explore inorganic growth opportunities:

More pharma companies will look for acquisitions to bridge the strategic gaps, as AstraZeneca did in 2020.

Conclusion:

In 2021, Covid Mayhem may possibly be over with a gradual rollout of vaccines. But, the impact of utter disruptions that the pandemic has caused in multiple areas of businesses in 2020, especially within the pharma industry, would continue, as we step into 2021. As the drug industry overwhelmed by Covid-19, reset themselves with the digital transformation in the new normal -for growth beyond Coronavirus, one may also view this much awaited metamorphosis, as a blessing in disguise, as it were.

Overall, as the W.H.O observed very rightly on December 27, 2020: “We throw money at an outbreak, and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted, and frankly difficult to understand.” He further added: “History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life.” I hope, all concerned will realize this point in 2021. Alternatively, we may need to keep ourselves prepared to move, in a similar way, from the current new normal to yet unknown next normal.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 


A Rare Strategic Acrobatic Feat in Covid Time

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‘Keep nose to the grindstone while lifting eyes to the hills.’ Quite a while ago, all-time global management guru – Peter Drucker used this essential acrobatic feat as an example, for the business strategists. This illustration signifies the criticality of harmonizing decisions affecting both the short and the long-term goals of an organization, for a sustainable business excellence.

In most recent times, the pharma major AstraZeneca that has virtually become one of the household names, for developing a Covid-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford, has performed the above acrobatic feat – with precision. During the prevailing unprecedented health crisis, the Company has unequivocally proven that it remains on course – in achieving its dual objectives, as Drucker had prescribed in his management classic – ‘The Practice of Management.’

It happened in tandem – without getting overwhelmed by the disruptive forced of Covid pandemic, unlike most others. Immediately, the Company focused on an urgent objective of saving the humanity – by developing, manufacturing and delivering a Covid vaccine to the world, in a record time. This was possibly a relatively short-term goal. And closely followed the other – a critical strategic decision for the organization’s long-term sustainable business excellence.

I have discussed before, the Company’s first initiative – developing a Covid vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford. Hence, in this article, I shall focus on two other related areas:

  • Deadly impact of rare diseases in some Covid infected young patients.
  • Why not some large Indian companies also explore similar strategies as demonstrated by AstraZeneca – and the reasons behind the same?

Before going into those areas up front, let me start with a brief description of AstraZeneca’s intent to expand its footprint in the of area of rare diseases, besides immunology area to help treat rare types of cancer.

The acquisition:

On December 12, 2020 AstraZeneca announced that to accelerate its strategic and financial development, the company will acquire Alexion valuing $39 billion. Subject to all statutory approvals, the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. Interestingly, Alexion’s top brand – Soliris, is the world’s one of the most expensive drugs in the world. It is prescribed to treat a rare – life-threatening blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Incidentally, rare diseases have also some significant relevance for Covid infected patients. Let me now recapitulate, some key aspects of rare diseases.

Some key aspects of rare diseases: 

Rare Diseases (RD) – also referred to as Orphan Disease (OD), are diseases affecting a small percentage of the population, and include genetic diseases, rare cancers, infectious tropical diseases and degenerative diseases. There is no universally accepted definition of a rare disease, yet. Different countries define these differently. However, the common considerations in the definitions are, primarily, disease prevalence and to a varying extent – severity and existence of alternative therapeutic options.

Impact of some rare diseases in Covid infected patients: 

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, people with underlying diseases, such as, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disorders, are considered to fall in the high-risk group. They are more likely to have severe disease and complications and need to be extra cautious of the infection. Importantly, it has been recently reported that some rare diseases also increase risk of dying during Covid-19 pandemic at a younger age.

For example, as reported on December 07, 2020, recent studies indicate, rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases increase risk of dying during Covid-19 pandemic for younger patients. The researchers also found that women with rare autoimmune rheumatological diseases (RAIRD) had a greater increase in all-cause mortality rates during the pandemic when compared to men with RAIRD. However, there seems to be an India specific issue also in this situation, as well.

India specific issue for Covid infected patients with some rare diseases:

Some India specific issues on RD, could have a significant adverse impact on Covid infected patients in the country. One such critical issues is the ‘Baseline Knowledge of Rare Diseases in India.’ This fact was well captured in an important survey that was published with the same name, as an original article, in the ‘International Journal of Rare Diseases & Disorders,’ on November 06, 2019.

The study noted, among others:

  • Although, rare diseases have recently received worldwide attention, the developing countries are seriously behind in regard to awareness, drug development, diagnosis, and social services, in this area. India, which has one-third of the world’s rare disease population, has no accurate assessment of the problem.
  • The drugs for ‘Rare Diseases (RD), also called Orphan Drugs (OD)’, often cost exorbitant with difficulties in diagnosis and treatments.
  • Indian policymakers want to find out the number of RD and the extent of the population suffering from them and help provide treatment for them, which is a challenging task with 1.45% GDP health care budget for 1.3 billion people.
  • The health care professionals appear to have some awareness as compared with non-healthcare professionals, but even among health care professionals, only one third had a rudimentary understanding of RD and OD, whereas three-fourths have virtually no knowledge of RD.
  • Forty-three percent of health professionals had not seen rare disease patients, and a large percent of practicing physicians had not seen even one rare disease patient in their entire professional practice.

Thus, it is clear from this survey that the most important issues are awareness and diagnosis, as many rare diseases are not diagnosed or possibly misdiagnosed. Besides, the survey also observed, since 1983, many global companies started developing orphan drugs after the Orphan Drug Act implementation. There is none at this time in India, although in 2017, the Drugs & Cosmetic Act. 1945 has been amended to include “rare diseases and orphan drugs”.

The National Policy on Rare Diseases flagged some of these facts:

The ‘National Policy on Rare Diseases 2020,’ for India, released by the Union Ministry of Health on February 07, 2020, acknowledged many of these important facts. It also said, ‘Considering the limited data available on rare diseases, and in the light of competing health priorities, the focus of the draft policy is on prevention of rare diseases as a priority as identified by experts.’

Interestingly, the first of such policy was prepared by India in 2017 and a committee was appointed to review it in 2028. However, recently published the National Policy on Rare diseases, has also noted one more important point. It noted: ‘Paradoxically, though rare diseases are of low prevalence and individually rare, collectively they affect a considerable proportion of the population in any country, which according to generally accepted international research is – between 6% and 8%.’ Currently, India, reportedly, doesn’t have any registry of rare disease, which has now been entrusted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in the National policy.

Common symptoms can hide underlying rare diseases, leading to misdiagnosis:

The above policy has also noted, rare diseases are characterized by a wide diversity of signs and symptoms that not only, reportedly, vary from disease to disease, but also from patient-to-patient suffering from the same disease. Importantly, relatively common symptoms can hide underlying rare diseases, leading to misdiagnosis.

During Covid treatment, similar circumstances could lead to a serious life-threatening situation. The 2020 RD Policy also reiterates: “Early diagnosis of rare diseases is a challenge owing to multiple factors that include lack of awareness among primary care physicians, lack of adequate screening and diagnostic facilities etc.” That said, yet another key question arises – will developing and marketing such drugs be profitable for the pharma industry?

Will developing such drugs be profitable for the pharma industry?

It is worth noting that the National Policy on Rare Diseases 2020, aims more at lowering the incidence and prevalence of rare diseases based on an integrated and comprehensive prevention strategy, rather than ensuring patient access to affordable treatments. Nonetheless, it also says, within the constraints on resources and competing health care priorities, India will try to enable access to affordable health care to patients of rare diseases which are amenable to one-time treatment. In general, the policy suggests, ‘voluntary crowdfunding for treatment’ of rare diseases.

With this being the prevailing situation in India, even during Covid pandemic, an interesting article – ‘How Orphan Drugs Became a Highly Profitable Industry,’ published in The Scientist, noted some important facts in this area. It highlighted: ‘Government incentives, advances in technology, and an army of patient advocates have spun a successful market—but abuses of the system and exorbitant prices could cause a backlash.’

It also articulated, despite higher costs and less-certain returns, investments in drug development on the rare diseases side appear to ‘be bucking the trend.’ The result of the global focus on RD nowadays is: ‘Firms with marketing authorization for orphan products, are now more profitable than those without.’

This also partly explains the financial rationale behind AstraZeneca’s recent acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, valuing $39 billion.

Conclusion: 

As of December 20, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 10,031,659 of new Coronavirus cases with 145,513 deaths. The country has already crossed 10 million in Covid cases as the vaccine approval remains pending. The threat of subsequent waves for further spread of Covid infection continues to loom large in many states. Meanwhile, many studies indicate that comorbidity should now include rare diseases, as well, especially to prevent deaths in younger patients. From this perspective effective diagnosis and treatment of RD are also coming under spotlights. Curiously, the National Policy on Rare Diseases 2020 focuses more on awareness and prevention of RD rather than access to affordable treatment, particularly in Covid infected patients to save precious younger lives. As I wrote previously and still believe, the ‘National Policy on Rare Diseases’ becomes more meaningful with ‘Orphan Drugs Act.’

Vaccines to prevent Covid infections are also expected to get emergency approval in India, shortly. At lease, some of these being available at affordable prices, including AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, according to reports. As recent reports indicate the same company, is also entering into RD therapy areas, through a key acquisition, yet another hope looms large. A hope for availability of relevant RD drugs at an affordable price for Covid infected patients, despite other apprehension, as I wrote before.

That apart, purely from the business management perspective, as well, this rare strategic acrobatic feat of AstraZeneca - ‘Keep nose to the grindstone while lifting eyes to the hills,’ during the Covid crisis, I reckon, is exemplary for the practicing managers.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.