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Using Selling Simulator For New Drug Launch In The New Normal

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The reverberation of unparalleled business disruptions in healthcare caused by Covid pandemic, extends across its value chain – from patients and families to clinicians and pharmaceutical companies. Consequently, even many diehards or staunchly tradition-bound pharma marketers were being prompted to reimagine their marketing model, to keep the business going.

Some of these areas include, customer preferred engagement channels, platforms and associated remote or virtual training inputs – necessary for effective execution of new strategic marketing models for the evolving new normal. A few of them are also moving in this direction – garnering requisite wherewithal.

“But it has also left some of them paralyzed by uncertainty. Should they invest now in transforming their commercial model or wait to see how things play out?” This palpable dilemma of many pharma marketers, was well captured in a recent McKinsey & Company article - ‘Reshaping pharma’s strategy in the next normal,’ published on December 15, 2020.

In a situation like this, one of the critical challenges is the successful launch of new pharma products amid changing customer behavior, product expectations and other associated uncertainties. ‘As pharmaceutical companies reshape their commercial models to prepare for the uncertainties ahead, personalization and digital enablement will be crucial to launch success in the new environment,’ underscored the above article.

As many of us will know, quality training and development inputs for the same, remain a vital prerequisite before the sales force hits the marketing battle ground. Isn’t that also a challenge in the prevailing market situation? Could digitalization of the company provide a solution to this critical sales force training issue for the same, in the new normal? This article will delve into this area.

Digitalization is a basic step – the challenge is much beyond that:

As I wrote in my article dated October 07, 2019, disruptive digital transformation in pharma sales and marketing is indeed a necessary basic step. It will also help to leapfrog in the field staff training and development process by imbibing leading-edge technologies, such as AI, for giant leaps to higher growth trajectories. But, ‘Digitalization’ isn’t a panacea, either.

This was also echoed in another recent article on ‘Pharmaceutical Marketing in The New Normal’, published in the Forbes magazine on August 11, 2021. It wrote, ‘even the best, most advanced digital tools won’t help if reps are not properly trained.’ This is due to multiple factors. Let me elaborate the point from a new product launch perspective.

New normal brings unprecedented changes – no footsteps to follow:

The extent and depth of personalization required in any effective customer engagement process for successful outcomes, has undergone a fundamental shift. Today, personalization of content, channels and platforms is a necessity and no longer an option. In the new normal one size doesn’t fit all. Consequently, sales force training process, particularly for a new drug launch, has also become personalized, with simulation of new expectations and requirements of each market becoming a key ingredient, more than ever before.

Simulated sales training still not too common in pharma:

That personalized and simulated sales force training is still not too common in the pharma industry, was also captured in the February 2020 ‘The Voice of the Sales Rep study’ of the sales research firm – SalesFuel. It reported, just 30% of sales reps in the pharma industry are now getting personalized sales training based on individual needs. This study was done in the United States, and the same percentage is expected to be much less in India.

In this context, the above Forbes article also noted that at an elementary level, reps should be proficient in video conferencing and virtual CME basics, such as, screen sharing, lighting, cameras, and the likes. There could also be occasions when they may need to teach even some of the physicians for whom, as well, this type of engagement is new. Thus, simulation training may possibly play a critical role to make the sales force future ready, always.

Besides, gaining deeper insights of customers, market dynamics, and tailoring the content of personalized engagement, accordingly, will be a critical part of personalized training through simulation, especially for new product launch in the new normal.  

Doctors availing product and treatment related online services: 

While navigating through acute disruption of life during Covid pandemic, several doctors have learnt to use digital channels and platforms to avail product or new therapy related information directly, instead of through sales reps. And that too, as they want, when they want and the way they want, gaining a discretionary choice. Several surveys, such as,  2020 Accenture research, also reported many doctors want either virtual or a mix of virtual and in-person meetings with pharmaceutical reps, even after the pandemic ends.

Available studies also give a sense that the future overall trend in pharma is unlikely to be a replication of pre-Covid time, prompting the players to reimagine their customer engagement format. For example, a contemporary ‘Real Time Covid-19 Barometer Survey of physicians,’ by Sermo, found that ‘67% believe pharmaceutical companies could improve communications with HCPs and could do more to help physicians make prescribing decisions.’

Hence, even with the much-reduced threat from Covid infection, as and when it will happen, the same trend is likely to change the scope and traditional toolkit for future new brand launch, as well. Hence, pharma companies would, need to change their sales training architecture, accordingly – like simulation training – always keeping one ear on the ground.

Proven edge of simulation training in healthcare during Covid-19:

There are several studies in this area in different parts of the world. To illustrate the point, let me quote a Canadian study, published by ResearchGate in December 2020. It made several important points, which I summarized, as below.

The study elucidates, healthcare resources were strained to previously unforeseeable limits because of COVID-19 pandemic, in most countries. The unprecedented nature of disruption in health systems prompted the emergence of rapid simulation training for critical just-in-time COVID-19 education. The aim was to improve preparedness for giving high quality care to rapidly increasing number of Covid infected patients, including caregivers, across all healthcare sectors.

The researchers found that simulation training was pivotal for healthcare provider learning, alongside new systems integration, development of new processes, workflows, checklists, protocols, and in the delivery of quality clinical care to all concerned.

To cope with the new reality, triggered by the Covid pandemic, as also demonstrated by several other studies, simulation training has the potential to deliver the best learning outcomes. Some may obviously would seek a little more clarity in understanding what exactly is a simulation training that I am referring to.

What exactly is simulation training?

It won’t be terribly difficult for pharma marketers to understand what exactly simulation training in pharma sales and marketing is. As the name suggests, simulation is a replication of what happens or may happen in a real-life situation. In this particular case, it involves the simulation of changing pharma customers and market behavior and expectations, in the new normal.

Thus, a simulation training process, say for a new brand launch, would create virtual market scenarios by replicating all recent changes in customer behavior/expectations and the market dynamics – of a specific territory. This is usually done with AI based computer software, designed to help sales force learning of a real-life situation, without being in the thick of it on the ground. In simulated training, the selected trainees interact with technology, rather than reading notes or listening through the lectures of persons having similar insights.

The selling simulators are cost-effective and provides better outcomes:

Besides being cost-effective, simulation training is also considered a 24-carat way of developing new skills, and also assessing how well the trainees are translating the new learnings into practice. No wonder why even the US National Library of Medicine, after evaluation and review of several research studies, has acknowledged that simulation training imparts learning ‘just like a real thing.’

How will it work on the new product launch?

In pharma sales and marketing area, the simulation of customers’ post-pandemic new needs and expectations, can be simulated by developing a ‘selling simulator’ for new product launch, in the new normal. These simulators will integrate AI-based software with game dynamics or gamification, creating a virtual field situation for sales reps to continuously learn and hone their new-product launch skills. The required contemporary skills may often be unique in nature, beyond the traditional pathways, even where there are no footsteps to follow.

Why simulation training for a new drug launch will add greater value?

This  query is also well deliberated in the McKinsey & Company article - ‘Reshaping pharma’s strategy in the next normal,’ published on December 15, 2020, with the Covid pandemic as the backdrop. It underscores, ‘it is clear that major shifts in the way that healthcare professionals (HCPs) interact with pharma companies will present a challenge for the traditional launch model, with its reliance on face-to-face meetings with physicians and its “one size fits all” approach to engagement.’

The study further points out that “the traditional pharma commercial model will likely struggle to adapt to a different world. When reps venture back into the field, they will need to address the plurality and access challenges of the new interaction landscape. To do that, they will need to consider a new approach to launches: one that is digital, local, and personalized.”

This changing need will call for a new genre of training, and I think, simulation training for pharma reps will prove to be more productive in this area.

Conclusion:

Many uncertainties in the pharma business continue, even after the second wave of Covid pandemic, with the Damocles sword of its third wave hanging over the head, including the Indian population. In the current volatile pharma business environment, as an article on the subject, published by the Pharmaceutical Executive on July 30, 2021, articulates – the challenges of remote work mean that training approaches must be adaptable and engaging.

Simulation training, with its power to engage learners, and developed for strategically minded, and data-literate sales teams, would become a key component of the future pharmaceutical sales training landscape. This is destined to happen regardless of whether delivered on site or in remote training formats. From this perspective, I reckon, with a well thought-out – AI-driven selling simulator, especially for new product launch, to start with, could be a potential game changer in yet mostly untried 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.

With More Patients Preferring Telehealth Pharma Marketing Needs Retooling

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Even after six months of COVID-19 pandemic, the omnipresent chaos, general unease and apprehensions about a yet unpredictable future continues in all countries, including India. In absence of vaccines and proven medicines to address the disease, wearing face mask, maintaining social distancing and frequent hand sanitizing, remain the primary measures for all to combat this unprecedented health crisis.

The rapid spread of the lethal Coronavirus has not only impacted lives and livelihoods, besides changing the health care ecosystem – with a silver lining, though. The pandemic has instilled a sense of urgency – an accelerated speed – in the entire value chain of the health care systems, including the pharma industry.

To contain the rapid spread of the disease – many physicians, Governments and even patients themselves, are being encouraged to leverage technological platforms, for various non-Covid related medical needs. Realizing that there no other working alternatives in this situation, even most skeptical doctors and patients are now resorting to video consultations.

Consequently, ‘Telemedicine’, in different forms, has started growing in leaps and bounce. Its spin-off benefits favor the patients – better care at lower costs, sans any further strain on the existing health care systems. Along with many others, the Bloomberg article of April 10, 2020 – ‘Coronavirus Should Finally Smash the Barriers to Telemedicine,’ also expects it to grow, not just during the pandemic, but much beyond.

Echoing the World Health Organization (W.H.O) on the need to promote telemedicine in this health crisis, Niti Aayog of India also acknowledged, ‘‘Telemedicine: A Blessing In Disguise In Time Of COVID-19.’ It further added, ‘With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has finally gained momentum. Telemedicine providers reported an overnight increase in demand, acceptance among doctors, paramedics, and consumers.’

As patient-doctor interactions are now expanding – from personal visits to physicians to remote telehealth, is there a need for recomposing notes of the pharma marketing playbook - to excel in the new world order?  This article would focus on this specific area of leveraging ‘The Break in The Clouds’.

Telemedicine and its key primary driver: 

‘Telemedicine’– often called telehealth or e-medicine, in simple term, involves the remote delivery of health care services, when both doctors and patients are not physically present at the same place. It includes, patient examination, doctor consultations, diagnosis, treatment and remote monitoring, over the technology enabled modern communication infrastructure.

Although, telemedicine is not a new concept, it was not very popular for various reasons, till Covid pandemic offered no other viable alternatives to non-Covid patients. The article – ‘COVID-19: The rise and rise of telemedicine,’ published in the MobileHealthNews on May 27, 2020, also vindicates this point. It reconfirmed: ‘Telemedicine has experienced a huge surge in adoption over the past few months, during the coronavirus pandemic.’

Even Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, ‘Telehealth – A Technology-Based Weapon in the War Against the Coronavirus’ of May 13, 2020, found the demand for telehealth technology rising dramatically, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the delivery of healthcare worldwide. Thus, ongoing stringent requirements of wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing to contain the virus spread, will continue to drive the growth telemedicine as the preferred way of accessing healthcare.

Indian perspective of increased online access to health care:

Practo’s Insight Report of June 20, 2020, titled, ‘How India accessed health care in the last three months,’ has revealed some interesting India-specific data in this area. This study was based on transactions of 500 million Indians accessing health care online, during March 1, 2020 to May 31, 2020 period. It found, while COVID-19 continued to remain India’s topmost concern, ‘telemedicine has helped doctors – patients stay connected, as people practiced physical/social distancing.’ This resulted into a ‘500 percent increase in online doctor consultations,’ in that time frame. Other important findings of this report include:

  • 80 percent of all telemedicine users experienced it for the first time.
  • 44 percent of the teleconsultations were from non-metro cities.
  • In-person doctor visits dropped by 67 percent.
  • Indians consulted their doctors 2 times per month, using telemedicine.

The surge in teleconsultations in India, reportedly, follows the long-pending telemedicine guidelines which were finally issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Board of Governors, Medical Council of India (MCI).

Could ‘Telehealth’ be a game changer even beyond Covid time?

Many experts in this area believe so. For example, the article – ‘Telehealth could be a game-changer in the fight against COVID-19. Here’s why,’ published the World Economic Forum on May 01, 2020, makes some important observations. It suggests: ‘Beyond the pandemic, governments, insurers and healthcare providers need to work together to ensure that the innovation sparked by this crisis endures and accelerates. Post-crisis, telehealth can still help alleviate the pressures posed by healthcare resource shortages, the growing elderly population and issues with healthcare accessibility.’

The article, published in the Invest in India website of the Government of India, on April 10, 2020, emphasized the relevance and benefits of ‘Telemedicine’ in India – even after Covid Time. Conceding, in-person health care delivery in the country is challenging, given the large geographical distances and limited resources, it enumerated all-time relevance and the key advantages of ‘Telemedicine,’ as hereunder:

  • Saves cost, effort and other related inconveniences, especially of rural patients, as they need not travel long distances for obtaining consultation and treatment, also limiting burden on the secondary hospitals.
  • Ensures higher likelihood of maintenance of records and documentation, minimizing the possibility of missing out advice from the doctor and other health care staff.
  • Provides safety to patients and health workers’, especially where there is a risk of contagious infections.
  • The doctor has an exact document of the advice provided via tele-consultation. Written documentation increases the legal protection of both the parties.
  • Enables the availability of vital parameters of the patient available to the physician with the help of medical devices such as blood pressure, blood glucose, managing.
  • Provides equal access to quality care to all, minimizing inequity and barriers to access.

The official guidelines for telemedicine practices in the country are aimed at allowing registered medical practitioners to providing remote consultation. Under this backdrop, Telemedicine is expected to remain in a growth trajectory, even in India. Accordingly, there arises a need for recomposing notes of the pharma marketing playbook - to excel in the new world order. 

Increasing telehealth preference prompts marketing strategy retooling:

As I wrote on July 10, 2020, pharma leaders need to leverage the art of turning challenges into opportunities, now – especially when telehealth is at the threshold of playing a pivotal role in the health care delivery systems. In this scenario, traditional pharma brand-demand generation strategies are unlikely to deliver expected business results, anymore. Pharma players would need to work out fresh and effective marketing models, in-sync with patients changing health care related needs. Conceiving, strategizing, and delivering changing patient-value based content, effectively, using modern omnichannel platforms, would be the new ballgame.

‘Telehealth is more than a channel for delivering care’:

As the ZS Insights article – ‘While telehealth continues to evolve, pharma needs to keep an eye on the future,’ published on August 03, 2020 reiterated: ‘Telehealth is more than a channel for delivering care, it reflects a fundamental shift in how brands reach patients and physicians.’ Following are some key points worth noting:

  • Until now, in-person delivery of care has anchored brand marketing in the sales territory-based geographic perspective. Whereas, telehealth platforms are free of sales territory-based geographic distinction.
  • Physicians now provide telehealth services to patients in two ways, having different implications for pharma players:
  1. Vertically integrated virtual practices, such as, Practo, Lybrate and others in India.
  2. Brick-and-mortar offices, where physicians provide telehealth visits through     FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom and other teleconference platforms.

It is envisaged, alongside patients avoiding the risk of contracting Covid, tangible benefits of lower treatment cost and escaping long waiting time to meet the doctors physically, will encourage people switching to Telemedicine, for an indefinite period.

Collaborative, not standalone pharma marketing may not work better:

In the era of telehealth or Telemedicine, the common ground where patients, doctors and drug companies can meet, would be the telemedicine platforms. These may well be some popular telemedicine apps for e-consultation, such as, Meddo, Practo, mFine and others in India. Besides, there lies an opportunity for pharma companies also to develop custom-made ones, for installation by doctors.

These platforms can be effectively leveraged with collaborative approaches – for content delivery to physicians, patients and other stakeholders, at the appropriate time and places. There are various innovative ways to prepare a grand strategy for this purpose – ‘tailor-made’ for each company. And astute pharma marketers should play the role of ‘master tailors.’

Conclusion:

Meanwhile, as on October 11, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 7,051,413 of Coronavirus cases with 108,371 deaths. The daily number of new cases appeared to have slowed down during the last week.

Nonetheless, the unprecedented and savage onslaught of the new Coronavirus has unsettled the pharma industry, as it disrupted the old normal of the world. At the same time, many people have also demonstrated high resilience, grit and innovative mind to keep moving, in a relatively orderly manner – amid an omnipresent chaos, as it were. In the health care space, the need for responding to non-Covid related health emergencies, pushed people to experiment with not much used before – telehealth or  Telemedicine.

It worked and continues receiving support from all concerned. Its other major benefits also surfaced – as a breath of fresh air. It’s unlikely that people will let it go, in the foreseeable future, which has a great implication to pharma industry. With more patients and doctors increasingly preferringTelemedicine, in various ways, pharma marketing needs retooling its strategy kit – by expanding into collaborative approaches with Telemedicine providers.

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 Marketing: Time For A Disruptive Change with A New Breed of Marketers

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In Today’s fast-changing world, as I indicated in several of my previous articles, more and more people first try to understand the causative factors of their ailments, and options available for effective remedial measures. They strive to get such information, either from the cyberspace or by word of mouth from well informed individuals or other sources. This process starts before treatment, and continues, at times, even after remission of the disease.

Even in the developed countries, a scope exists for self-medication for common ailments with OTC drugs, duly approved by respective country’s drug regulators. A point to ponder, most of these were ‘only prescription’ medicines before going off-patent, and after enjoying 20 years of exclusivity with pricing freedom. During their patent life, self-treatment was illegal with any of these molecules, if not dangerous. The same tradition continues today.

The bottom-line is, many patients are now trying to understand their diseases from sources other than the physician. Good or bad, the reality is, such patients generally prefer to visit a doctor as and when they deem it necessary. While visiting a clinic, they already have, not just some idea of the ailment, but also in what way they would prefer to get themselves treated and approximate cost of each. One should not presume, either, that majority of them are unaware of the risks involved with this approach.

Pharma marketers today can’t just wish away this emerging trend of patients and patient groups getting increasingly more informed. Trying to stop this trend will be a Herculean task, similar to swimming against a very strong current. Managing this situation in a win-win way is now a key task of a pharma marketer. In this article, dwelling on this trend, I shall focus on the need for a disruptive change in pharma marketing and the new breed of drug marketers.

Calls for a fundamental shift in pharma ‘marketing focus’:

Achieving this objective warrants a fundamental, if not a disruptive shift, in the ‘marketing focus’ of pharma companies – from traditional ‘product management’ to modern ‘brand management.’

With patented ‘me-too’ drugs, including ‘Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs)’, as well as generics, now dominating the market, some sort of ‘commoditization’ of drugs are taking place in the pharma industry, whether one likes it or not.

No significant differential advantages oruniqueness exist between such products manufactured by different drug companies. Consequently, doctors or patients have enough choices to prescribe or buy, drugs with comparable efficacy, safety, quality standards and matching price range, from different pharma players.

Shift from product marketing to brand marketing:

One may possibly ask aren’t both quite the same? Is there any meaningful difference between these two? Thus, taking a pause, let us try to understand what’s the difference between these two.

Yes, for many there is not much difference between these two, especially in the pharma industry. Hence, many drug companies name this function as ‘product management’, while others call it ‘brand management’. In fact, these two are often used as interchangeable terminologies in the drug industry. Nonetheless, this understanding is far from being correct.

The key focus in ‘pharma product marketing’ is on the drug itself – its intrinsic value offerings to patients in terms of efficacy, safety, quality and often the cost. Thus, ‘product marketing’ approach may work for breakthrough drugs, but not for ‘me-too’ patented drugs or generic ones to achieve the desired goals of the respective companies, consistently.

Whereas, pharma ‘brand marketing’ in its true form, creates much more value than pharma ‘product marketing.’ The former dovetails intrinsic values of the drug with a set of strong feelings and emotions around the brand, purely based on what patients or consumers would want to experience from it. This process makes even a me-too brand stand out, creating a strong personality around it and differentiating itself head and shoulder above competitors. Importantly, the bedrock of conceptualizing these powerful feelings and emotions, must necessarily be robust, relevant and fresh research data. No doubt, the task is a challenging one– and not every marketer’s cup of tea.

Why building personality for pharma brands and services is necessary?

If we look around the healthcare industry, we shall be able to realize the importance of building personality for a medicine, especially generic drugs with a brand name, in the Indian context.

For example, many hospitals offer similar medical treatment facilities, follow similar treatment guidelines and their cost may also not be very different. But why different people prefer different ones among these, and all hospitals don’t get a similar number of patients? Same thing happens during the patients’ selection of doctors from many, having similar qualification, experience and expertise.

This happens mainly due to the attachment of a persona around each that creates a particular feeling and emotion among patients while choosing one of them. The process and reasons of creation of a persona may be different, but it certainly differentiates one from the other for the consumer. The same thing happens with virtually undifferentiated ‘me-too’ patented drugs or generic medicines.

Time to create a ‘strong pull’ for a drug, instead of ‘push’ by any means:

To create a ‘strong pull’ successfully, specifically for ‘me-too’ patented molecule or generic drugs, there is an urgent need for a fundamental change in the organization’s marketing approach – a shift in focus from ‘product marketing’ to ‘brand marketing’.

Otherwise, current pharma marketing practices for creating a ‘strong push’ for drugs that often involve alleged serious malpractices’ will continue. But continuation of this approach is not sustainable any longer, for scores of reasons.

The benefits of pharma ‘brand marketing’ in bullet points:

To summarize the key benefits of ‘brand marketing’ in pharma, the following points come at the top of mind:

  • ‘Brand marketing’ of drugs helps escaping avoidable and unsustainable heavy expenditure to create a ‘strong product push,’ often resorting to contentious marketing practices.
  • Proper ‘brand marketing’ of drugs needs high quality cerebral and multi-talented marketing teams, rather than the power of ‘deep pocket’ to buy prescriptions. This creates a snowballing effect of cutting edge talent development within the organization, along with a culture of leading by examples, for a sustainable future success.
  • ‘Brand marketing’ is a better, if not the best way to make a drug most preferred choice in a crowd of similar branded generics or ‘me-too’ patented drugs.
  • Paying doctors for prescribing a drug does not help developing loyal customers, but creating feelings and emotions for a brand among them, helps foster brand allegiance.
  • Creative ‘brand marketing’ of drugs will appreciably boost the image of the organization, as well, but ‘pharma product’ marketing in its present form, will not.

Pharma ‘brand marketing’ and ‘patient-centricity’ to work in tandem:

My article, ‘Increasing Consumerism: A Prime Mover For Change in Healthcare’, published in this blog on June 11, 2018, deliberated an important point. It was:

If the pharma strategic marketing process is really effective in every way, why is healthcare consumerism increasing across the world, including India?

The focal point of rising consumerism in the pharma industry is unsatisfied, if not anguished or angry patients and patient groups – in other words consumers. There could be various different reasons for the same. But the core point is, contentious marketing practices that pharma players generally follow, is self-serving in nature. These are not patient-centric, and mostly devoid of efforts to create feelings or emotions for the product, among both prescribers and other consumers.

The pharma marketers to keep pace with changing environmental demands:

As I discussed several times in the past, pharma marketers are often found wanting to meet the changing demands of the business environment. This is important, as the general pharma practices of influencing the prescribing decision of the doctors are facing a strong headwind of increasing consumerism, India included. This is slowly but surely gaining momentum. For example, patients in India are realizing:

  • That a vast majority of people pay ‘out of pocket’, almost the total cost of health care, without having even a participatory role in their treatment choice, including drugs.
  • That they no longer should remain unassertive consumers, just as what happens in other industries when a consumer buys a product or service.
  • That they need to involve themselves more and be assertive when a decision about their health is taken by doctors, hospitals, realizing that pharma and medical device companies often ‘unfairly’ influence doctors’ prescribing decisions.

The role and requisite talent required for pharma marketers have changed:

Keeping aside ‘one size fits all’ type of strategy, even if I look at so called ‘targeted marketing’ in pharma, it appears somewhat baffling. It is somewhat like, ‘empty your machine gun magazine at the target with a hope to win over competition.’ Whereas, today’s environment requires making healthcare product marketing, including drugs and services, more personal, and in some cases even individual, like latest cancer therapy. The wherewithal for technological support to move towards this direction is also available. State of the art marketing and product research tools and analytics should be put to use to facilitate this process.

Increasing usage of digital marketing, in an integrated or holistic way, is going to make traditional pharma marketing less and less productive, whether we like it or not. To maintain a sharp competitive edge in this new ball game, on an ongoing basis, pharma marketers will need to keep raising the bar.

Consequently, the role and requisite talent required for pharma marketers have also changed. The new generation of drug marketers will not just be creative, but their creativity will be guided by a huge pool of credible research-based data, avoiding gut-feel. All guesses in this area must pass the acid test of validation by what the research data reveals. Moreover, pharma marketers will need to possess, at least the working knowledge of various digital platforms and possible usages for each of these.

Conclusion:

There is an urgent need to realize that drug marketing is now at the crossroads, pharma players will have a choice, either to follow the same beaten path or gradually make a course correction to keep pace with changing environmental demands. If a company decides to choose the second one, the role of pharma marketers and the talent required for doing the job effectively, will be significantly different from what it is today.Maintaining the status quo in this area, carries an inherent risk for the future success of pharma companies.

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.

 

Increasing Consumerism: A Prime Mover For Change in Healthcare

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Increasing ‘consumerism’ has already become a strong prime mover to reckon with, even in healthcare, including the pharma industry, across the world. Patients’ longing for better participative treatment experience at an affordable cost, has started gathering momentum as a major disrupting force in the healthcare space of India, as well.

In this article, which discusses a different topic from what I said in my last article that I will write this week, let us try to fathom today’s reality in a fast expanding area, primarily by connecting the emerging dots, both globally and locally. However, before doing so, it won’t be a bad idea to recapitulate, in the general term, what exactly is ‘consumerism’ – and then looking at it in context of healthcare.

What it really means?

The Oxford dictionary defines ‘consumerism’ as: ‘The protection or promotion of the interests of consumers.’ As an example, it says, ‘The impact of consumerism emerges as a factor of stabilization, as do the different understandings of stability and stabilization.’ Whereas, consumerism in healthcare is an assertion of patients’ right to be a key participant in their healthcare decision making process. As aptly put by Healthcare Success: “It is a movement from the ‘doctor says/patient does’ model, to a ‘working partnership’ model.”

Should pharma strategic marketing process, not take care of it?

When the above question is asked differently as: If the pharma strategic marketing process is effective, why is healthcare consumerism increasing across the world, including India? To find an answer to this, let’s go the basic of the definition of ‘marketing’. American Marketing Association (AMA) defines it as: ‘‘Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.’ A more specific definition of pharma marketing (Olszewska A. Strategic management in pharmaceutical marketing. Chemik 2006: S91-4.)is: ‘A management process that serves to identify and meet patients’ needs in a profitable way.’

This prompts the key question, if the above basic process of ‘marketing’ is followed by the pharma industry as it ought to be, why should there be an increasing trend of ‘consumerism’ in Healthcare, in general, and the pharma industry in particular?

The major drivers:

NRC Health through various surveys, has captured the major drivers of consumerism in healthcare. I am listing below a few of those, as I understand, just as examples:

  • Significant increase in health care cost to payers, including the patients.
  • Consumers are the fastest growing payer in the industry.
  • They foot most costs of their health premiums and out-of-pocket co-pays.
  • As consumers have more money at risk, they want to get more engaged with their own treatment decision for the best value for money.
  • One-way monologue for treatment doesn’t not enough for most patients.
  • 3 of 10 patients defer necessary treatment to avoid self-confusion and expense.
  • 4 out of 5 find difficult to compare costs Vs. drug quality.
  • 3 out of 4 feel their health care decisions are the most important and expensive
  • Patients face difficulty to compare cost, quality, and access to physicians.

In my view, sooner than later, the emerging situation in India will also be no different, especially with its increasing digitally empowered population.

Is pharma marketer cognizant of this emerging trend?

It will be unfair to make any sweeping statement that they are not. This is based on what I see and experience around, mostly in the global arena. But locally, although significant publicity of a large number of pharma training programs appear in the social media, most of these are apparently based on the ‘buzz of the time’.

Besides a few sporadic exceptions, generally the Indian pharma marketers still appear to believe in the same age-old model – what the ‘doctor says/patient does’. As a result, increasing consumerism keep haunting the industry – the Government often responds – mostly with sound bites, though, the industry keeps lamenting on the ‘ease of doing business’ or the lack of it, in India. The much avoidable cycle continues.

A prime mover for change in healthcare:

Increasing health care consumerism is a prime mover to usher in significant changes in this space. These changes are mostly unexpected and disruptive, but usually good for the patients. I shall illustrate this point here with just two examples, out of many. The first one comes from three global corporate head honchos of unrelated business, aimed at their own employees. And the other is related to all patients with the initiative coming from within the healthcare industry, including pharma.

The first example of an unexpected move comes from the announcement of three corporate behemoths – Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, saying they would form an independent health care company for their employees in the United States. This was reported by The New York Times (NYT) on January 30, 2018. The alliance signals how frustrated American businesses are not just with their health care system, but also rapidly spiraling cost of medical treatment – the report said. The NYT also quoted Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway as saying:“The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy.”

The initial focus of the new venture, as announced, will be on “technology solutions” that will provide U.S. employees and their families with “simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.”  They also plan to “bring their scale and complementary expertise to this long-term effort.Nevertheless, it is unclear how extensively the three partners would overhaul their employees’ existing health coverage to reduce healthcare cost and improving outcomes for patients. They may simply help workers find a local doctor, steer employees to online medical advice or use their muscle to negotiate lower prices for drugs and procedures. While the alliance will apply only to their employees, these corporations are so closely watched that whatever successes they have could become models for other businesses – NYT commented.

The second examplecomes from an article, titled ‘Consumerism in Health Care’, published in NEJM Catalyst on January 11, 2018. It says, another important change that is a direct outcome of the consumerism of health care is personalization of care to facilitate health outcomes. However, ultimate personalization, that is, a “one-to-one relationship” between a company and an individual appear increasingly possible with the data and analytics that are now within the reach of many global pharma players, the paper says. However, most Indian pharma players, I reckon, still lack wherewithal that’s required to build capabilities to deliver high degree of personalization for patients.

As a result, pharma industry, in general, is still charting in the primary stages of delivering personalization, although, progress made by some global players in this direction is quite encouraging.

Consumerism in healthcare to gather momentum in India:

A September 2016 paper, titled ‘Re-engineering Indian health care’, published jointly by FICCI and EY points to this direction. The results of their survey done as a part of this study indicates, the aspirations of the middle and upper classes are evolving and their demands for convenience, participation and transparency in the health care delivery process are indicative of the shift from being a docile patient to an informed “health consumer.”

Thus, it is irrefutable today that digitally empowered patients are fast increasing, even in India. This is fueled by rapid expansion of broadband Internet in the country – a bottomless source of information. In this scenario, would the general pharma marketing assumption in India - what the ‘doctor says/patient does’, still yield results? Indian pharma marketers may need to possibly do some crystal gazing in this area – sooner the better.

Conclusion:

Accepting the reality of increasing consumerism in the healthcare space, both globally and locally, pharma players, especially in India, need to clear all clutter in the pathway to reach out and directly interact with their end-customers – the patients, aiming at improving clinical outcomes, the way patients would want – individually or in a cluster.

In a nutshell, what do patients want through increasing consumerism: Personal and meaningful involvement in their healthcare decision making process, based on requisite credible information from independent expert sources. Thus, what pharma the players should gear up to be: Cultivating a truly patient-centric approach in their business. And, there lies the real challenge for many in the industry, as it will mean all marketing and related organizational decisions will revolve around in-depth understanding of the patient’s mindset, along with their associated needs, want and health aspirations.

While moving towards this direction, providing personalized care by leveraging optimally selected modern technological platforms, will be a cutting-edge tool for pharma business excellence and achieving sustainable all-round growth – over a long period of time. As I see it, increasing consumerism will continue to remain a prime mover for unexpected, but welcoming changes in the healthcare space, at least for a medium term. It is to be taken rather seriously, with as much care as it deserves.

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.