Tag Archives: insights

Leveraging Data Science To Deliver Unique Patient-experience

Posted on by
Reply

“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.

More Challenges For Brand Launch Success In The New Normal

Posted on by
Reply

The drug manufacturers’ life blood to drive business growth has always been successful new product launch. However, this task has always remained a tough challenge to crack, since last so many years for various reasons. According to McKinsey & Company: “About two-thirds of drug launches don’t meet expectations. Improving that record requires pharmaceutical companies to recognize the world has changed and adjust their marketing accordingly.” Several research studies have been carried out by now to gain actionable insight on this issue.

Existing challenges for successful drug launch got further amplified, as Covid-19 pandemic added a novel dimension in this space. It involves disruptive changes in many facets of customers’ new product-value expectations. Similar changes are witnessed in the product value delivery process, doctor-patient engagement, content development and delivery platforms, among others. This article will explore this area from successful new product launch perspective, in the days ahead.

Dismal outcome of many new drug launches – more for primary care:

According to a recent study, published by L.E.K Consulting on December 18, 2020: ‘About half of all products launched over the past 15 years have underperformed pre-launch consensus forecasts by more than 20%.’ This is quite in line with what McKinsey & Company found in 2014, as quoted in the beginning of this article.

However, in a relative yardstick, the primary care market has been the most vulnerable, which continues even during the ongoing pandemic. For example, according to an April 2020 Evaluate Vantage analysis, ‘Covid-19 adds a new danger to drug launches.’ The study emphasized, new drug launches, especially those targeting the primary care market, are particularly vulnerable as the pandemic continues. The key reason being, besides widespread disruptions in the health care system, sales teams will be physically unable to reach frontline physicians, as much as, and also the way they could do the same in the old normal. The studies underscore that a strong launch is critical to achieving maximum commercial potential, despite odds.

Some pivotal factors demand a greater focus than ever before:

After in-depth analysis of various studies in this area, some pivotal marketing factors appeared critical to me, in order to reduce success uncertainty while launching new products.

Alongside, unbreachable and agile supply chain alternatives also assumed a never before-frontline-importance in the new normal, unlike pre-Covid days. Another recent study, titled ‘Competitiveness During Covid-19 Pandemic: New Product Development and Supply Chain Agility’, published by ResearchGate in October 2020, vindicated the point.

As the title indicates, the above study examined the effect of new product development and supply chain agility to gain competitiveness during the Covid-19 pandemic and probably beyond. Thus, while developing and launching new products in the new normal, some pivotal factors, such as the following, appeared critical to me, in order to reduce success-uncertainty while launching new products:

  • Early planning for launch with a robust market access strategy, better sales forecasting with stretch goals – supported by state-of-the art forecasting tools and relevant learnings from the past.
  • Gaining actionable insight on changing customer needs, market dynamics and competitive threats in the new normal – by generating credible and contemporary data and leveraging the power of analytics – to offer differentiated stakeholder value.
  • Driving home patient-centric coeval product values that will delight customers – through flawless execution of stakeholder engagement strategies.
  • Working out virtual, innovative, personalized and impactful alternatives to some critical launch related physical events, such as, conferences, seminars, webinars and the likes, for doctors and other customers.
  • Developing creative and contemporary content and other marketing assets for significant online or omnichannel presence of new brands – supported by video clips and other tools, aiming at the target audience.
  • Differentiating the launch product clearly from those of the nearest competitors, where a focus on price-value relationship of the brand – from the patients’ perspective, could play a game changing role. As McKinsey & Company also highlighted, launching an undifferentiated product in an unestablished disease area carries a greater risk of failure.
  • Creating a robust and agile supply chain to navigate through unexpected market changes – as all experienced recently.

Delivering ‘patient-centric’ real value of the brand together, is critical:

Interestingly, L.E.K Consulting has also emphasized in its recent study that to drive and effectively deliver ‘patient-centric’ real value of new products, it is imperative for drug companies to execute the launch process flawlessly.

To make it happen on the ground – at the moment of truth, careful selection of a team of self-motivated people is necessary. This needs to be followed by intense training in all aspects of the specific launch, including effective use of modern digital tools and platforms – and above all – by creating a ‘can do’ team spirit to deliver the deliverables.

This requirement has been epitomized in the recent article, titled ‘Beyond the Storm: Launch excellence in the new normal,’ published by McKinsey & Company. Therein, the authors articulated, ‘Intangible though it may sound, great launches have a different feel from normal launches. There is a real sense that – we’re all in this together.’

Pharma’s current way of using digital platforms doesn’t satisfy many doctors: 

Over the last one year, as the pandemic brought all human activities virtually to a grinding halt, there has been a significant shift towards digital tools and online platforms, including in the way medical practitioners interact with drug companies. As recent surveys indicate, pharma customers don’t seem to be quite satisfied with the way many pharma players are currently making use of this technology.

This is happening even with those doctors who are open to virtual engagement and in favor of remote patient consultations. The issue needs to be resolved soon, particularly for new product launch successfully – using digital platforms, as reported in recent surveys.

The survey reports retraining of ‘sales reps to become digital orchestrators’:

One such recent survey, conducted by Indegene, which was also reported by Fierce Pharma on February 01, 2021, digital dissatisfaction of doctors with pharma companies, has jumped during the pandemic. The rates of dissatisfaction with pharma digital interactions, across media channels, ranged from 23% to almost 50% of physicians. Some of the key findings of the study include:

  • 49% of physicians are not happy with pharma’s social media engagements – perceived as less sophisticated when compared to expectations set by consumer companies.
  • Pharma is far from providing a satisfactory digital experience, as compared to other industries. The current dissatisfaction level where a higher percentage of doctors were dissatisfied, include marketing emails – 46%, telephone sales calls with sales reps – 42% and both webinars and websites – each at 39%.
  • In-person meetings dropped from 78% to 15% during the pandemic, but even now only 48% of doctors surveyed expect in-person engagements to continue in the post-COVID world.
  • Attendance at medical conferences also dropped from 66% to only 16% during the shutdowns and travel restrictions, but only 50% of HCPs now expect to resume in-person congresses after it’s safe to hold them.
  • The number of physicians engaged in remote sales visits increased from 11% to 47% during the pandemic, probably because there weren’t other alternatives available. Interestingly, one-third of physicians still plan to continue with virtual sales meetings even after the pandemic.
  • Most stakeholders are realizing, this is going to be the new normal, with senior pharma leadership also saying, ‘it’s never going to be the same as before.’
  • About 5 of the top 15 global pharma players are retraining their sales reps to become “digital orchestrators” and working to help them create clear and comprehensive digital communications for doctors.

Speedy resolution of these issues is likely making a substantial difference in improving pharma-to-physician interactions, particularly during new drug launches, in the days ahead.

Conclusion:

Success uncertainties in new product launches have always been a cause of concern for the drug industry, especially after having invested a substantial resource towards innovation and clinical developments. Interestingly, pharma players were mostly following ‘stick to the knitting’ dogma, as it were, in their launch planning. Despite the availability of sophisticated digital tools and analytics over the last several years, particularly in generating and accurate analysis of contemporary and credible data to gain insights, not much had changed radically. Suddenly Covid pandemic disrupted most market traditions, business processes, and the general belief on decision makers’ ‘gut feelings’ on customer behavior, market dynamics. Besides, the mindset of ‘doing better that what you have been always doing’, prevailed in many cases. In India, market research for most companies remained within the ambit of syndicated retail and prescription audit, despite frequent grumbling of many marketers on some critical findings of these reports.

The last one year has created more challenges in this area, although with a silver lining. A large number of drug companies have now stepped into the area of digital marketing – in varying degree, scale and resource deployment. This shift is expected to help reduce launch success uncertainties of new drugs. It will again, depend on how effectively the technology is leveraged by the cerebral power of astute markers.

Another article on pharma product launch, published by McKinsey & Company on December 15, 2020, also vindicated this point. It underlined: ‘As pharmaceutical companies reshape their commercial model to prepare for the uncertainties ahead, personalization and digital enablement will be crucial to launch success in the new environment.’

Amid these, as some surveys highlight, many doctors are not satisfied with the way digital technology is being currently used by pharma companies – to interact with them and cater to their information needs. With these ‘teething troubles’ being properly and promptly addressed, many drug companies, I reckon, will be able to remarkably reduce success uncertainties of new drug launches in the new 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.

 

Pharma Not To Let Go This Never Before Opportunity To Reposition Itself

Posted on by
Reply

‘While the COVID-19 pandemic has placed unparalleled demands on modern healthcare systems, the industry’s response has vividly demonstrated its resilience and ability to bring innovations to market quickly.’ This appeared in the McKinsey & Company article – ‘Healthcare innovation: Building on the gains made through the crisis,’ published on November 12, 2020.

Just a couple of days before that, on November 09, 2020, an interesting article appeared in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the resilience of the pharma industry. It also discussed on how ‘an often-disparaged industry is finding a rare opportunity to promote its value,’ to turn around public perception of its image and reputation during the pandemic. The article elaborated this point by quoting: “It was a fight between pharma, tobacco companies and the government for who would be at the bottom in terms of reputation,” – now “Covid is giving them an opportunity to step out of that world and into the world of ‘we can help,’ and it’s giving pharma a comeback.”

As is known to many, pharma industry was long vilified for its many self-serving objectives. But the Coronavirus pandemic helped immensely to highlight its role in developing medications and vaccines to save the humanity. It happened never before – ever, with this intensity and scale. Thus, the shift is inspiring many pharma giants to reposition their marketing and communications, the WSJ report added. This article will deliberate on how pharma marketers can leverage this once in a lifetime opportunity, with actionable insights on Covid pandemic-induced – changing needs of healthcare customers.

Covid-19 to change the way companies do business - A recent survey:

In this McKinsey & Company survey, published on June 17, 2020, more than 200 organizations across industries had participated in this study. Notably, over 90 percent of the participating executives expect the fallout from COVID-19 to fundamentally change the way companies do business over the next five years, with a lasting impact on their customers’ needs. In the pharma industry too, these trends are clearly visible and undergoing a metamorphosis. I quote below a few important points from this study, as illustrations:

  • Nearly 73 percent respondents from the pharma and medical supplies industries agree that the changes brought about by Covid-19 will be a big opportunity for growth.
  • Only 21 percent of the same executives feel that they are prepared with resources, expertise and commitment to address the changes they see coming, for harvesting the new growth opportunities.
  • Curiously, only 25 percent of respondents reported that capturing new growth was a top priority today, compared to roughly 60 percent before the crisis hit.
  • Notably, across the industries only pharma and medical product industries have increased their focus on innovation during Covid crisis. Although, many are still playing safe, which may be a shortsighted decision, the research paper observed. 

Understand the shifts and the opportunities with actionable insights:

That the current Covid crisis has significantly exacerbated and accelerated many disruptive forces, is vindicated by another survey: ‘Global B2B decision-maker response to COVID-19 crisis.’ This was published by the McKinsey & Company on October 20, 2020. It also reiterated, ‘B2B decision-maker preferences and behaviors have shifted dramatically since the onset of COVID. The GTM revolution is here and B2B sales is forever changed.’ I shall quote two of these areas, as follows:

A. Changes to pharma sales models: Companies with significant field forces can no longer rely on in-person coverage to outcompete. This is because:

  • The tide has turned: digital self-service and remote rep interactions are likely to be the dominant elements of the B2B go-to-market model, going forward.
  • Don’t count on returning to a pre-COVID-19 level of in-person sales coverage, as only 20–30% of B2B buyers want to ever interact with reps in person even in their ideal/post-COVID-19 model.
  • Around 90% of B2B decision makers expect the remote and the digital model to stick around for the long run, and 3 in 4 believe the new model is as effective or more so than before COVID-19 (for both existing customers and prospects).
  • 97% of B2B buyers claim they will make a purchase in an end-to-end, digital self-serve model, with the vast majority very comfortable spending more online.
  • Video-conference connections are critical and are preferred over audio/phone by almost 4 out of 5 B2B buyers.

B. Influx of competitors from different industries: Medical-device firms historically had a narrow competitive set and were insulated by a complex and highly technical regulatory approval process. They are now facing competition from previously unexpected new entrants, including Wearable Health Devices (WHDs) makers, such as Google, Apple among several others. As I also wrote about a year ago, on December 02, 2020, this is mostly because, WHDs help improve disease outcomes, creating a unique disease treatment experience.

Which is why, in the new normal, creating a holistic and innovative ‘Customer Experience’ is as important and challenging as creating ‘Innovative Drugs’.

Reposition pharma to create a holistic ‘Customer Experience’ in the new normal:

At the very beginning of this year, on January 13, 2020, I asked: What Pays More: Creating Innovative ‘Customer Experience’ Or ‘Innovative Drugs’? Although both are crucial for pharma, in the current scenario, the former, I reckon, is no less important or less demanding than the latter for pharma marketers. The question, therefore, arises, what new insights it will entail to meet the unmet changing needs of healthcare customers? The answers may point towards several areas, which are worth pondering over.

Leaving this exhaustive search for pharma professionals to gain the necessary insights for action, let me give an example of only one such area to drive home the point. An interesting article deliberating this area was published by Reuters Events on November 17, 2020. Especially in the new normal, finding solutions to unmet customer needs would prompt harnessing the combined and synergistic power of medical and marketing skills, creating a culture to match, as the article highlighted.

Elaborating this need, the author stressed, the traditional model of medical and marketing functions working in silos is often a barrier to a holistic customer approach. This is because it stifles the opportunity for co-creation of well-synchronized solutions on a number of medico marketing issues during patients’ disease treatment journey mapping. These customer-centric medico-marketing issues, I reckon, are coming more often now with the increasing number of more informed patients, especially about their personal health care and treatment needs.

Traditionally, in the pharma industry ‘working in silo culture’ is quite prevalent – medical and marketing functions are no different. Encouragingly, during this pandemic, several companies have formed cross-functional teams of medical and marketing professionals. They also create brand plans, develop content and communication strategies in the new digital platforms, as preferred by the customers. Let me hasten to add, most companies, especially in India will need to catch up with this new way of working, creating a new culture, soon.

Two interesting examples of medico-marketing during Covid Crisis:

There will be several examples in this area. However, to illustrate the point of creating a holistic ‘Customer Experience’ in the new normal, let me cite two examples of medic-marketing in this area, during Covid crisis. Coincidentally, both the examples are from the global pharma major Pfizer – the Company (along with BioNTech) that offered the first Covid-19 vaccine to the western world for public use under ‘Emergency Approval’ by the British drug regulator.

The first example is a website for Pfizer prescription medicine assistance program – called Pfizer RX Pathways. It mentions at the very top, ‘Pfizer recognizes the public concern in relation to COVID-19, which continues to evolve. Click here to learn how we are responding.’ When clicked, it takes the viewers to another website, where Pfizer says, ‘we are committed to helping keep people safe and informed.’

The second one tackles the uncertainty and anxiety that many people feel during the Covid pandemic – reassuring the viewers that “science will win.”  It starts with: “At a time when things are uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is—science. Science can overcome diseases, create cures and yes, beat pandemics. It has before; it will again.”

There are many other examples, including a social media series on Covid-19 of the Company, which help enhancing holistic ‘customer experience’ in the contemporary situation, for which the concerned companies’ brands are also rewarded by the customers.

Conclusion:

As of December 13, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 9,857,380 of new Coronavirus cases with 143,055 deaths. The threat of subsequent waves for further spread of Covid infection still looms large in many states. The good news is, at least, one Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be available in India within a month’s time. Meanwhile, as many people believe, when a company or an industry does most things right, as experienced by its customers, its reputation goes up, and vice versa. For example, the Gallup Poll, published around a year ago – on September 03, 2019 said: ‘The pharmaceutical industry is now the most poorly regarded industry in Americans’ eyes, ranking last on a list of 25 industries.’ Interestingly, similar Gallup Poll, published a year later – on September 08, 2020 noted, ‘the pharmaceutical industry’s image has improved modestly since last year, and it has yielded the “worst rated” distinction back to the federal government.’

So, something good must have happened during this one-year period, the most influential of which being Covid Pandemic. We have seen above, how some pharma players have repositioned themselves to provide a holistic ‘Customer Experience’, through innovative multichannel communication – being on the same page with customers. Medico-marketing approach played a stellar role in these efforts. As more healthcare customers get enlightened on their health and treatment needs by charting through the cyberspace, they are expected to lap-up such multichannel communication, alongside other equally cerebral pharma initiatives.

Undoubtedly, Covid pandemic is a triggering factor for this change, both among the healthcare customers and the pharma players. This trend is not going to disappear soon, as various top research studies have highlighted. Well-deserved pharma image and reputation boost has started gaining speed, following what some companies are demonstrating to customers during the Covid crisis. Pharma marketers, I believe, will not let go this never before opportunity to reposition their respective companies. It will help them achieve well-cherished brand excellence, supported by a robust Company image and reputation. As the good old saying has proved again to the pharma industry – even during the Covid pandemic, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’

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.