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Indian Pharma Leadership: A Glimpse of Changing Mindset Post Pandemic

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A recent survey of physicians, published by the CMI Media Group, provides fresh evidence that Medical Representatives meetings with the physicians that have become trickier to arrange since COVID-19, still continue. This was also reported in the March 29, 2023, edition of Fierce Pharma.  

The survey objective was to capture what are physicians’ preferences, when asked whether they want to meet with pharmaceutical reps in person more often, less often or in equal frequency as pre-pandemic. Some of the key findings of this recent study include the following: 

  • 25% of the doctors, reportedly said they are reducing face-to-face interactions.
  • With 10% of doctors responding never seeing reps, it could be challenging for many pharma players to call on these doctors via the traditional in-person route. 
  • However, another 51% of physicians replied that the frequency of their in-person interactions is unchanged from pre-pandemic and 14% seeing reps more frequently than before. 
  • It also found that digital channels have potential to compensate for the pullback from in-person meetings.  
  • Most of such doctors prefer receiving resources for talking to reps via video or phone. 
  • Interestingly, 70% and 78% of physicians said digital resources are more convenient, educational and valuable than remote rep visits. 

Let me hasten to add that the above study was carried out mostly in the European countries. Thus, in today’s deliberation, I would focus mainly on two areas:

1. How is this situation evolving in India and the way some of the Indian majors are gearing up to convert this challenge into opportunities to gain a competitive edge, and 

2. What, in my view, needs to be a pharma marketing leadership mindset change, alongside its traits for effective change management, to excel in the changing market dynamics. More importantly, whether or not this trend is also visible within some of the Indian pharma majors.

The comparable situation in India:

I find some interesting data on the Indian pharma industry in this regard, from several public domain. These indicate that while some physicians may be open to virtual interactions with medical representatives during and after the COVID pandemic, there are also examples of physicians who were not too keen to meet with pharma reps. These seem to be for several reasons. Some reported examples are as follows:

  • Delhi Medical Association (DMA), which represents more than 15,000 doctors in the Indian capital, has banned pharma med reps from entering hospitals or meeting with doctors in person. The DMA has cited concerns about the influence of pharma reps on prescribing practices, besides potential conflict of interest.
  • With over 3.5 lakh memberships, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) appears to have discouraged physicians from meeting with MRs. Instead, the association has urged them to rely on evidence-based information and guidelines while prescribing drugs to patients.
  • Some private hospital chains in India have also restricted or banned pharmaceutical sales representatives from interacting with physicians. This includes Fortis Healthcare, which has banned pharma reps from its hospitals in Delhi and Mumbai, and Max Healthcare, which has restricted interactions to virtual meetings only. 
  • The Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) has issued guidelines for its members recommending that they avoid interactions with pharma med reps. The IPS has stated that interactions with pharma reps can create conflicts of interest and bias in prescribing practices and may not always provide accurate and reliable information.
  • Some physicians in India are increasingly turning to online platforms to access unbiased information about medications and treatments, rather than relying on information provided by reps. Online platforms such as Medscape and Docplexus provide physicians with access to up-to-date medical information and peer-reviewed research studies.

With a changing mindset, some Indian players are facing this challenge:

Evidence suggests that there is a growing awareness among several physicians in India about the potential biases and conflicts of interest that can arise from interactions with pharma representatives. While virtual interactions and non-promotional information may still be acceptable to some physicians, others may prefer to rely on more objective sources of information or avoid interactions with pharma reps altogether. 

There are several examples in this area highlighting how some Indian pharma majors are trying to stay ahead of the technology curve. As reported, some specific responses of Indian pharmaceutical companies to the restrictions on interactions with physicians

include, Cipla’s launch of a digital platform called CiplaMed to provide healthcare professionals with access to non-promotional medical information and education.

Post-pandemic changes in the mindset and outlook of marketing leadership:

As I see, the COVID pandemic experience has brought significant changes in the mindset and outlook, especially, in the marketing leadership of several Indian drug companies. One key reason could be the success requirements in contemporary pandemic market dynamics are going through a metamorphosis. Which is why the emerging situation demands new approaches and strategies for success.  

Many pharma marketing leaders are now trying for early identification of even the nuanced change requirements relevant to their respective organizations for sustainable business success in the current paradigm. Some of these requirements were identified as:

Agility and Adaptability: The pandemic has highlighted the importance of being agile and adaptable. Pharma marketing leaders must now be able to quickly pivot their strategies and tactics based on changing market conditions and consumer needs.

For example, Cipla adapted quickly to the changing market conditions during the pandemic by ramping up the production of essential medicines and medical supplies. The company also developed innovative product solutions, such as a portable mechanical ventilator, to address the critical shortage of medical equipment during the pandemic. 

Similarly, Lupin demonstrated agility by diversifying its product portfolio to include COVID-19 testing kits, PPE, and other pandemic-related products, besides helping to develop innovative solutions to address the pandemic, such as a telemedicine platform that enables patients to consult with doctors remotely. 

Digitalization: The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards digitalization in the pharma industry. Marketing leaders must be able to effectively leverage digital channels such as social media, online advertising, and telemedicine to reach and engage with consumers.

For instance, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories leveraged digital technologies to enhance its customer engagement efforts. The company developed a mobile app called - ‘Medznat.’ It is touted as a one-stop solution for physicians, medical students and other healthcare professionals to stay abreast with the latest medical knowledge. It offers an umbrella of offerings, such as news, scientific articles, case studies, regulatory updates, medical events, drug flashcards, and many more. The app offers some key features, such as: personalized quality content, any time, anywhere and patient education materials.

Customer-centricity: The pandemic has increased the need for customer-centricity in the pharma industry. Marketing leaders must now prioritize customer needs and preferences and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly.

Sun Pharma appears to be another leading example that, reportedly, demonstrated customer-centricity by developing patient assistance programs that provide financial support to patients who cannot afford their medications. The company also partnered with healthcare providers to develop disease management programs that improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

Data Analytics: The pandemic has highlighted the importance of leveraging data science and data analytics in the pharma industry. Marketing leaders must be able to effectively analyze data to understand customer behavior and preferences and to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. 

The name of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals comes to the top of mind in this area. The Company is now using data analytics to analyze sales data and identify trends in the market. The company is also using analytics to track physician interactions and ensure compliance with government regulations.

Continuous Innovation: The pandemic has created new opportunities for innovation in the marketing domain. Thus, marketing leaders must be willing to experiment with new approaches and technologies to stay ahead of the competition and meet changing customer needs.

As is known to many, Zydus Cadila has developed a COVID-19 vaccine and has also been working on the development of a COVID-19 drug. The company has also been involved in the development of new drugs to treat various other diseases.

Collaboration: The pandemic has underscored the need for collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem. Pharma marketing leaders need to work closely with other stakeholders, including healthcare providers, payers, patient advocacy groups, and government agencies, to develop solutions that meet the needs of all stakeholders.

In this area, Biocon, for instance, collaborated with government agencies and NGOs to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to underserved communities. The company also worked with healthcare providers and patient advocacy groups to develop education and awareness campaigns that promote better health outcomes.

Similarly, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories partnered with IQVIA to rollout IQVIA’s OCE application to its entire field force and marketing users in India to drive more meaningful and impactful customer engagement.

 Conclusion: 

These are a few areas with examples from a few Indian pharma majors that would give a sense of how the mindset and outlook of their marketing leadership teams are changing. This is happening, as is widely believed, after having experienced the last two years’ unprecedented disruptions in business and customer behavior.

It’s equally interesting to note that our domestic drug industry, which was not traditionally well known for effecting significant proactive changes – is transforming itself while stepping into the post-pandemic world – in pursuit of 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.

 

 

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.

 

Pharma Leadership Challenge In Post Covid Paradigm

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Bringing a long cherished relief to many, on September 15, 2022, the World Health Organization said, ‘we can see the Finish Line’ for the COVID-19 pandemic but it’s not over yet’. As I see today, several things are changing pretty fast in this scenario. Such as, not so long ago – on September 27, 2021, the same global health organization predicted differently: ‘World Will Live with COVID for Foreseeable Future.’ It further highlighted “It is dangerous to assume that omicron will be the last variant, or that we are in the endgame. On the contrary, globally the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge.” The Wall Street Journal also reported on September 18, 2022 that the US President Joe Biden too  feels, ‘Covid-19 pandemic was over’ in the United States.

Be that as it may, I reckon, the world is not going to replicate to the pre-Covid mode of working, any longer. The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly made some impactful changes in the most work scenario, across the world. This has been revealed by several recent studies. With this perspective, in this article, I shall dwell on the challenges that the pharma leadership teams will face or are already facing, as the world shifts towards the post Covid paradigm.

Four critical areas for change:

To illustrate this point, I will focus on just three critical areas for pharma players, as follows:

  1. No going back to the pre-Covid mode of working
  2. Create a more employee focused organization for future success
  3. Determine the right size of digitally savvy field force in the new paradigm 
  4. Increase online share of voice in represented therapy areas and identify pharma’s digital world opinion leaders.

Why no going back to the pre-Covid mode of working:

With the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic on people’s lives and livelihoods fast receding, the need for some critical changes in several areas of pharma business, is now being felt by some forward looking astute pharma leadership teams. Recent studies, such as, the Gartner paper of June 16, 2022, among others, vindicate ushering-in some of the following changes in workplaces:

  • Ongoing changes in the way people work have transformed employees’ relationship, and their expectations of work.
  • Hybrid work could be a great opportunity, particularly for diverse talent..

Another article in this regard, published in the Harvard Business Review on January 13, 2022, capture 11 trends that will shape the work, in general, from 2022 and beyond. When I put some of these in the pharma space, it may include the following:

  • Employee turnover will continue to increase, as hybrid and remote work becomes the norm for knowledge workers in pharma companies.
  • Many repeated managerial tasks at various levels, will be automated, creating greater space for them to build more human relationships with their peer group and direct reports.
  • The tools used for working remotely are also being used to measure and improve employee performance on an ongoing basis.
  • The complexity of managing a hybrid workforce may drive some employers to evaluate a ‘return to the office’ with its pitfalls and benefits.

Thus, creating an employee focused organization becomes critical.

Creating an employee focused organization will be critical:

In the current scenario, the importance of being able to afford employees maximum flexibility, adapting and flexing to their individual circumstances and needs, is increasing manifold. This, has also come out very clearly in a number of studies, including one paper of the Healthcare Consulting Group (HCG), as reported on July 25, 2022.

Thus, nurturing employees’ desire for personal and professional growth, besides motivating them with a strong sense of purpose to their work, has become foundational to being an attractive workplace, more than ever before.

Is the pharma industry right-sizing the digitally savvy field force?

One can pick up several signals in this direction from what is happening, as the industry is opening-up with a rapidly declining onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. Various studies vindicate the intent of field staff reduction by the pharma industry. Today’s environment requires a digitally savvy field force of optimal size, which may vary from company to company.

For example, the article published in the Reuters Events Pharma on May 5, 2022, in this regard, elucidated “While Reuters Events Pharma’s own recent polling of the industry suggests a moderate reduction in numbers over the next couple of years, others see signs of more dramatic change.”

Many pharma players are now pondering – during Covid pandemic when companies were making so many less face-to-face calls, sales were OK. Now, when the intensity of the pandemic is receding, do they need the previous sales force numbers to make more such calls?

The general feeling appears to be that the old practices aren’t as productive as they were before, in the changing scenario. Thus, the paper underscored: ‘So with the largest players are already thinking about how to do more with fewer boots on the ground, how do they go about it?’ It concluded by saying: ‘No one is saying it is easy then, but the imperative for change is clear.”

Pharma customers’ online engagement is increasing with a low share of voice of companies:

This is yet another critical area of change where drug industry needs to strengthen its online voice. Several studies indicate that even a tiny part of most pharma companies’ online conversation about their represented disease and therapy areas doesn’t get captured in Google search. For example, yet another recent paper on this subject, published in the Reuters Events Pharma on July 05, 2022, confirms this point.

The article highlights: ‘Around 80% of patients Google for a recommended or newly prescribed medication. And doctors routinely use search engines too – to stay up to date, to verify assumptions and so on. Indeed, it may be no exaggeration to say that the answers found online are possibly the biggest influence on patients and HCPs today. Understanding their real-world digital information experience is, therefore, critical to identifying the content influencing their behavior.’

In today’s world, what these customers see and hear via search engines may shock many, the author emphasized. The study also reveals, despite many pharma companies’ investment in evidence-based, balanced, and accessible content designed for HCPs and patients, this is often buried far out of reach from the billion-plus health-related questions being asked of Google each day. ‘Pharma’s online voice often simply isn’t cutting through,’ it concluded.

What needs to be addressed soon in this area:

Each pharma marketer may wish to ascertain through data-based studies, which voices are dominating these conversations. And also, the nature and quality of the company’s own digital conversation and its share of voice. This is, besides getting to know who the digital opinion leaders are. Then, the task will be to find out ways to work with these people and share the company releases with them, requesting for their inputs, if any.

Conclusion:

The experience of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns has changed work patterns in many industries from what those were in the pre-Covid days. The drug industry is no exception. According to recent studies, two out of every five workers have either switched jobs or are actively looking for another that will fit into their working needs better, and with some remote work. This trend, being a common expectation, is gaining ground.

Thus, making an employee centric organization is now more important than ever before. Bringing together the best of remote working and office locations, as centers of excellence for team building, learning and innovation, is emerging as a central part of the pharma leadership challenge, as an HCG study, reportedly, also points out. It is generally believed that employees ‘who feel connected to purpose at work are more productive and more likely to stay.’ In tandem, pharma leadership teams also would require leaving a lasting impact on everyone’s work, which will be more tangible to them.

Alongside, as several contemporary studies indicate, and I also wrote in this blog on April 29, 2019 – ‘Adopt A Hybrid Business Model For Better Sales – Not A large Field Force,’ each company’s field force number also require a fresh look now with a focus on digitally savvy individuals. Another reason being pharma customers’ online engagement is increasing fast where most companies have a very low share of voice, as the search engine reveals. Consequently, identifying, partnering and in-depthunderstanding of key digital opinion leaders has become critical in creating a digital content that will influence the customer behavior. As reported on September 26, 2022, pharma major Sanofi, apparently has taken a major step in this direction.

From this perspective, it appears that the pharma leadership teams have a task cut out for them to effectively respond to the challenges of change in the post Covid paradigm – in search of pharma 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.

Why And How To Be In-Sync With Gen Z As Pharma Paradigm Shifts?

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As science and technology, across the world, are progressing at a scorching pace – Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding, today’s generations are growing up tech savvy – more than ever before. The trend will keep going north faster and with a steeper gradient. This is being driven by transforming social and economic environments – necessitating quicker solutions to any needs, problems, and expectations.

The current signals, as underscored by an article appeared in the Abbott Website on November 19, 2019: ‘Generation Z’s relationship with technology will also influence how the group relates to healthcare.’ Thus, it’s no secret that millennials approach their health care in drastically different ways than members of the Silent Generation, baby boomers or Gen Z, the article added.

Which is why, gradually shifting paradigm of the pharma industry would also eventually create a brand new one – with the Gen Z population growing at a faster pace. From the above perspective, in today’s article, I shall focus on the importance of this shifting paradigm, especially from the pharma industry perspective, including India.

Expectations and experience of Gen Z are contrasting:

Let me start with the definition of Gen Z. In January 2019, Pew Research defined Gen Z as anyone born after1996, just as ‘anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial.’ Gen Z grew up with technology, the internet, and social media. Moreover, according to another study of Pew Research, published on May 14, 2020, Gen Z is growing up having experienced catastrophic disruptions in almost all spheres of life and livelihoods, triggered by Covid-19 pandemic. It further ascertained, ‘the oldest Gen Zers have been particularly hard hit in the early weeks and months of the Coronavirus crisis.’

Thus, I reckon, the experience and expectations of many of such Gen Z from business and overall environment around – are quite different from earlier generations. More importantly, they will also have a strong influence on younger ones. Hence, the expected transformation would be much broader than what is currently visible today on the ground.

Some core characteristics of Gen X from pharma business perspective:

Various studies have captured the core characteristics of Gen Z, some of which are very relevant to pharma industry and are worth taking note of – for excellence in business performance. These include the followings:

Digital natives:

As McKinsey & Company highlighted in an article, published on November 12, 2018 that Gen Z is the first generation of true digital natives, and they are expanding. Whereas Millennials were regarded as ‘digital pioneers,’ who bore wit­ness to the explo­sion of tech­nol­o­gy and social media, Gen Z populations are born into a world of peak tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion. In that environment infor­ma­tion is imme­di­ate­ly acces­si­ble and social media becoming increas­ing­ly ubiquitous – endorses another study by the Casey Foundation with its own findings on the core characteristics of Gen Z.

Financial minded:

Finan­cial mind­ed­ness is anoth­er core char­ac­ter­is­tic of Gen­er­a­tion Z for several reasons. A major one being, as discussed – many of them grew up witnessing unprecedented impact on lives and livelihoods caused by Covid-19 pandemic. Several other studies, like the one published recently by the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, indicates that millennials and Gen Z are especially sensitive to healthcare costs.

Shrewd consumers and cost-value conscious:

Gen Z show characteristics of shrewd consumers and are also cost-value conscious. Being tech savvy, they are more influenced by fast-expanding digital, world and would like to make well-informed purchasing decisions after evaluating a range of options – both for products and services. They tend to be more influenced by the experience of real-life users, rather than a celebrity endorsement and val­ue per­son­al­ized prod­ucts.

Gen Z to herald metamorphosis of future healthcare:

That it is happening gets retreated in the caption of the Fierce Healthcare article of June 16, 2020 – ‘Industry Voices -Generation Z is a game changer for healthcare.’ It emphasized, ‘Generation Z – are likely to turn the health industry on its head with their unique expectations for how healthcare should be delivered.’

Convenience is such a paramount for Gen Z that they are often willing to forgo a personal relationship with their healthcare provider. Besides, they will come to their physician and provider armed with data, information, and knowledge, unlike the past generations. Consequently, the danger for providers is, if Gen Z doesn’t get that desired convenience, they’ll go elsewhere, the article says. Simultaneously, ‘they also want a trusted adviser who can guide them toward holistic health and wellness.’ Thus, delivering patient-centric care, capitalizing on real-world data and automated care experiences, will be key to the transformative process of healthcare.

A recent survey also vindicates that the transformation has begun:

A recent Accenture healthcare consumer survey reiterated: “The new healthcare consumer is here.” The study clearly signaled a paradigm shift in this space spearheaded by millennials and Gen Z. Some of the survey findings encompass the following areas:

  • This group of healthcare consumer expectations for convenience, affordability and quality are redefining how they engage at each stage of care.
  • They are most dissatisfied with health care’s status quo and more willing to try non-traditional services, such as, virtual care and retail walk-in clinics, which are gaining in popularity and use with them.
  • With greater health care needs, they will increasingly look for services to satisfy their expectations for effectiveness, convenience, efficiency, and transparency.
  • With millennials and Gen Z to become the largest generation in not-too-distant future, they hold the most power to influence future healthcare models.

Some pharma players are tracking Gen Z and the changing paradigm:

Some global majors, such as Abbott, are also writing about it in their website Abbott.com. The Company has noted some of these changes, as follows:

  • Generation Z’s relationship with technology will influence how the group relates to healthcare. While growing up in a fully connected world, they ‘are less likely to have primary care providers and are more likely to use apps for scheduling, viewing medical records and paying bills.’ They are also more receptive to telehealth visits and connected healthcare than previous generations.
  • With the wait times for an appointment with a doctor growing longer, Gen X populations are more likely to use walk-in clinics or opt for urgent care centers which are more convenient.
  • Self-service and convenience play into Gen Z’s interactions with doctor’s and the industry as a whole. They prefer email, texting, and apps to manage their appointments or communications with doctors. Finding ways to communicate with this younger generation in their preferred modes, can help keep them engaged with the industry.
  • Millennials and Gen Z populations are most likely to use a wearable device. They typically reach out to friends or online communities to ask about a particular health condition before speaking with a doctor. Although they aren’t the groups using the more healthcare services, millennials and members of Gen Z are showing what the health industry needs to do to provide the best care.

Size of Gen Z population in India:

According to EY Gen Z survey, released on November 04, 2021, the next decade will be shaped by the maturation of Gen Z, the largest generational cohort in history, where India stands out with a population that includes 375 million people or 27% of the total population in Gen Z. Besides, the survey also underscores the importance of Gen Z in the shifting paradigm of market dynamics for the pharma industry, as well.

Conclusion:

Currently, healthcare industry, in general, and most drug companies, in particular -especially, in India, don’t seem to nurture the fast-growing population of Gen Z with a customer engagement strategy that they can relate to. What these players are currently marketing is mostly aimed at traditional customers, and who still form the majority.

Exploring these evolving changes, I wrote an article in this blog, on November 07, 2016. This was titled ‘Millennial Generation Doctors And Patients: Changing Mindset, Aspirations, And Expectations.’ However, the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 pandemic, alongside rapid advancement and adaptation of digital technology, tools, and platforms, has expedited this process.Apace with these changes the pharma paradigm is also shifting, at a much faster pace than ever before. Which is why, I reckon, it’s important for the entire health care industry in India to be in-sync with Gen Z expectations and engage them, accordingly.

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.

 

Holistic Disease Treatment Solution: Critical For Pharma Success

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The speculation over quite some time has ended now. The most important C-suite office of the world’s top pharma company will find a brand-new occupant at the dawn of a brand-new year, on January 01, 2019. Albert Bourla will now be on the saddle to lead Pfizer moving towards a new horizon of success, in place of Ian Read.

What makes this change interesting to me, is the new leader’s not just shaking up the top team at Pfizer, but his simultaneous announcement for another brand-new C-Suite role in the company – The Chief Digital Officer (CDO). She will ‘lead the company’s digital efforts across research, discovery and business processes.’

Merck & Co. also joined ‘the chief digital officer parade’ on October 17, 2018 when it announced the appointment of chief information and digital officer, also as a member of the company’s Executive Committee. Notwithstanding a few global pharma companies’ have already started creating this role, the timing of this initiative by the top global pharma player, sends an interesting signal to many. Undoubtedly, it is a strategic move, and is surely backed by a profound intent. In this article, while exploring this point I shall try to fathom whether or not any fundamental change is taking shape in the strategic space of pharma business.

A fundamental change is taking shape:

This fundamental change, I reckon, is driven by realization that just discovery of new medicines, high quality manufacturing and high voltage marketing can no longer be regarded as success potent in the industry. There emerges a palpable and growing demand for holistic solutions in the disease treatment process, for optimal clinical outcomes and reduction of the burden of disease.

That several top global pharma companies have recognized this fact, is vindicated by what the Sandoz Division of Novartis acknowledged on its website. It quoted Vas Narasimhan – CEO of Novartis saying: “We are on the verge of a digital revolution across every aspect of the healthcare sector, from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside.”

Interestingly, pharma stakeholders’ interests and expectations, including those of patients, are also progressing in the same direction. This, in turn, is changing the way of leading and managing a pharma business – requiring a kind leadership with specific expertise in several new areas. The new C-suite position for a CDO is a proof of this change gathering strong tailwind.

What prompts this change?

As I see it, besides scores of other associated factors that digital technology offers to all, a single characteristic that stands out is the changing patients’ expectations for optimal clinical outcomes out of an affordable and involved disease treatment process.

This has always been so, but is now changing from mere expectations or just a hope, to patients’ demand, from both physicians and the pharma companies. This is a clear writing on the wall in the days ahead, and all concerned should take note of it, seriously. Does it mean that the broad flowchart of the disease-treatment-process, as I call it, has changed? Before delving into that area, let me briefly explain what exactly I mean by saying so.

A flowchart of the disease-treatment-process:

The broad flowchart for most of the disease-treatment-process, have primarily 6 ‘touchpoints’ or points of references, as I see it, which may be summarized as follows:

Patients – Signs & Symptoms – Doctors – Diagnosis – Medicines – Clinical outcomes

This means, patients with signs and symptoms of a disease come to the doctors. With various diagnostic tests, the disease or a combination of diseases is diagnosed. Then, doctors prescribe medicines or any other required medical interventions for desired clinical outcomes.

Has it changed now?

There doesn’t seem to be any fundamental change in this flowchart even today. But, the way the pharma players cherry-pick their areas of focus from its various touch points, is undergoing a metamorphosis.

As it stands today, to sell medicines – innovative or even generic pharma companies primarily focus on the doctors and off-late on patients – but just a few of them, to offer clinical outcomes better or same as others. In the evolving new paradigm, a successful drug companies would need to focus on each of these six elements of the flowchart with great expertise and sensitivity, from the patients’ perspective.

The position of CDO is expected to be a great enabler to facilitate the process of integrating all the touchpoints in the disease-treatment-flow. This will, in turn, offer a holistic treatment solution for patients – selling more medicines being the endpoint of this objective. If it doesn’t happen, the touchpoints where pharma is not focusing today would be captured soon by the non-pharma tech players. This will make achieving the financial goals of the organization even more difficult.

Let me illustrate this point by adding just one important area from this flowchart to the traditional pharma focus areas. This touchpoint goes hand in hand with the prescription of medicines – medical diagnosis. Providing patient- friendly disease prevention and monitoring tools may be yet another such area.

Current accuracy of medical diagnosis – ‘only correct in 80 percent of cases’:

The above was quoted by Sandoz (a Division of Novartis) in its website. It highlighted that the researchers at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK found that several medical diagnoses based on a limited range of factors are only correct in 80 percent of cases. It means ‘a diagnosis may miss imminent heart attacks, or it may lead to an unnecessary operation,’ it said.

The January 31, 2018 article published by Futurism.com - the publishing arm of Futurism, based in New York City, also underscores some interesting facts in this regard, including the above example. Some of these are fascinating, as I quote hereunder:

  • Researchers at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, developed an AI diagnostics system that’s more accurate than doctors at diagnosing heart disease, at least 80 percent of the time.
  • At Harvard University, researchers created a “smart” microscope that can detect potentially lethal blood infections with a 95 percent accuracy rate.
  • A study from Showa University in Yokohama, Japan revealed that a new computer-aided endoscopic system can reveal signs of potentially cancerous growths in the colon with 94 percent sensitivity, 79 percent specificity, and 86 percent accuracy.
  • In one study, published in December 2017 by JAMA, it was found that deep learning algorithms were able to better diagnose metastatic breast cancer than human radiologists when under a time crunch. While human radiologists may do well when they have unrestricted time to review cases, in the real world a rapid diagnosis could make the difference between life and death for patients.
  • When challenged to glean meaningful insights from the genetic data of tumor cells, human experts took about 160 hours to review and provide treatment recommendations based on their findings. IBM’s Watson took just ten minutes to deliver the same actionable advice.

Thus, the bottom-line is: Medical or clinical diagnosis is a crucial area where the tech savvy environment can add significant unmet needs to save lives of many. Consequently, this space is emerging as an Eldorado, as it were, for all those who are seriously interested in diving deep in search of a golden future in the related business.

Technological players are making forays:

Several tech companies have sensed the reward of a pot of gold in the above space, despite the journey being quite arduous. Consequently, many of them are coming up with user-friendly and disease-specific digital tools and health apps, compatible with smart phones or smart watches. These help patients monitoring their own health data, independently, and be aware of the disease progression, if any. Simultaneously, it also enables physicians not only to accurately diagnose a disease, but also to keep a careful vigil on the progress of the treatment.

To illustrate the point with an example – say about Apple. The company began making inroads into the healthcare space with health apps and fitness-tracking via iPhone and Apple Watch. Interestingly, riding on partnership and acquisition initiatives, it is now carving a niche for itself to provide complete health records of the users by capturing relevant disease-specific clinical data.

Apple Watch Series 4, for example, has ECG feature and the ability to detect irregular heart-rhythm, which is US-FDA approved. Reports indicate the company is also in the process of developing a non-invasive glucose monitoring tool, besides many others. Curiously, the company has already given a signal to extend the usage of iPhone to a reliable diagnostic tool for many disease conditions. Most important to note is, this concept is fast gaining popularity.

Calls for of a holistic approach in the disease-treatment process-flow: 

As this trend keeps going north, many pharma companies are realizing the underlying opportunity to adopt a holistic strategic business approach to move into the new frontier. This would encompass the entire disease-treatment-process-flow with digital technology, across the organization. Before other non-pharma companies firmly position themselves on the saddle while entering into this area, pharma needs to move fast. This calls for an urgent action to collaborate with tech companies in all the critical touchpoints of this flow, including diagnosis. That this realization gas dawned in pharma is evident from a number of related developments. Let me quote just a couple of examples, as follows:

  • Onduo, a US$500-million diabetes-focused joint venture between Sanofi and Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company was founded in September 2016. Onduo recently launched its first product – an app plus, a continuous glucose-monitoring device plus an insulin pump that are all linked together. The Onduo app has a built-in coach (i.e., an electronic assistant) to help patients better manage their diabetes and accomplish their health goals.
  • GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) have formed a joint venture to develop and commercialize bioelectronic medicine – miniaturized nerve implants that modulate electrical impulses to treat certain diseases.

Lack of digital leadership talent within the pharma industry?

It is interesting to note that both the Pfizer and Merck CDOs were recruited from non-pharma companies – Pfizer’s from Quest Diagnostics and Merck’s from Nike.  Earlier, in mid 2017, former Walmart CIO was named the Chief Digital and Technology Officer of GlaxoSmithKline. This trend probably brings to the fore, the lack of top digital leadership talent within the pharma industry.

Conclusion:

Increasingly pharma companies are realizing that enormous efforts and money spent in just marketing a drug, is producing a lesser and lesser yield, as the new paradigm unfolds. As we move on, patients no longer will want to buy just a medicine from the pharma players. They will want an integrated solution for prevention, cure or management of a disease.

At the same time, strong technology players, such as Apple, Google, IBM’s Watson are on the verge of capturing a sizeable ground, offering a gamut of patient-friendly offerings in the healthcare space. This would eventually make prescription of digital therapy a new reality. These tech companies are now entering through several virtually open doors in the disease-treatment-flow process, as I call it, primarily covering – diagnosis, disease monitoring and preventive care.

To effectively compete and grow in this environment, drug companies have to cover all the touchpoints of this process, not just the selective ones as are generally happening even today.

Creation of a new C-suite position of Chief Digital Officer to address this issue in a holistic away, across the organization, gives a clear signal to this realization. Thus, I reckon, offering a holistic treatment solution, covering all the touchpoints in the disease-treatment-flow process will be a new normal for pharma, not just for excellence in business, but for a long-term survival too.

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 Sine Qua Non to Pharma Success in Digitized World

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A wind of change is now blowing at an accelerated speed – encompassing virtually anything, across the world, including India, with a varying degree, though. It leaves a profound impact on the day to day lives of many, including almost free access to a plethora of information of any kind available in the cyberspace. The way we express ourselves – connect with others – meet our various needs and requirements – make hassle-free financial transactions – increasing transparency – containing corruption, besides scores of others.

Fast evolving digital technology is predominantly catalyzing this paradigm shift. Its weighty impact can also be felt across the global business world, sparing virtually none. Digitally enabled recent GST implementation process in India is just one such example.

Newer technology driven transformation process of overall business ecosystem is sending a strong signal to all concerned to shape up – coming out of their respective comfort zones of the old paradigm, and embracing the new one. Squarely facing this challenge of change is equally critical even to one of the most conservative, tradition bound, and well-regulated pharma industry. It’s rather an absolute necessity for pharma, as virtually all its stakeholders, including the patients and governments, have already started stepping on to the digitized world. The fundamental choice is, therefore, between shaping-up and shipping-out.

In this article, I shall argue on this critical need, based on several recent, pertinent and contemporary research findings on this fascinating space.

Indian CEOs take:

The 20th CEO Survey of 2017 titled, “Being Fit for Growth”, conducted by PwC

reveals that the term ‘digital’ evokes both excitement and a sense of apprehension among CEOs, both globally and locally. The following are some interesting findings involving the Indian CEOs, as captured in this survey:

  • 38 percent observed that over the past 5 years alone, disruptive technological innovations have had a significant impact on competition within their respective industries.
  • 47 percent believe that in the next 5 years, disruptive technological innovations will have a significant impact on competition in their industry.
  • 77 are concerned about the speed of technological change.
  • 76 percent expressed concerns about rapidly changing customer behavior.
  • 77 percent mentioned the need to create differentiation in their products and offerings by managing data better. 

Its relevance in pharma:

The relevance of taking this wind of change in stride and embracing it fast, is beyond any reasonable doubt today. The 2017 report of EY, titled ‘Reinventing pharma sales and marketing through digital in India,’ also reaffirms: ‘Digital will play an ever-increasing role in this era of profound transformations, characterized by increasingly informed patients/physicians, new range of customers and new disruptive entrants. To stay relevant, pharma companies need to adopt a nimbler approach and make data the currency of marketing.’.”.

The urgency:

A sense of urgency for this change has also been epitomized in the same report, as it underscores that digital disruption has demolished 52 percent of Fortune 500 companies, since 2000. The study further reiterates: “The pace of transformation has increased, competition has intensified and business models have been profoundly disrupted. This shift is happening at breakneck speed across industries, and pharma can no longer be an exception. Customers have already embraced technological changes, through their many digital touch points, and pharma must look toward digital to re-imagine the customer experience.”

Just changing manual processes to digital won’t suffice:

This is exactly what is mostly happening today in pharma. Concerned employees, in general, are also receiving training inputs accordingly. Vindicating this point, a recent study reiterates that just changing manual processes to digital won’t suffice, any longer. Delivering greater value to the stakeholders continuously through digitization of business is the name of the game.

The above EY report unambiguously endorses that: “Whatever was being done manually earlier is now being done digitally. But we are not adding additional value.”

While capturing in the report Indian pharma’s journey to the digital world, it articulates, though some digitization initiatives are being taken now, Indian pharma companies are still way behind their global counterparts. The survey found 53 percent of the participating companies still at the ‘beginners’ stage, while 40 percent are at the ‘conservatives’ stage and only 7 percent have moved toward the ‘explorers’ stage.

Three fundamental non-technical barriers, and the way forward:

Two important studies – one by EY, as quoted above, flagged three fundamental non- technical barriers in this area, and the other one by McKinsey & Co that proposed three strategic actions for Indian pharma to start on a digital path by leveraging its intrinsic value, meaningfully.

EY study indicated, 86 percent of the senior pharma leaders exhibited a strong positive inclination toward digital as a ‘strategic’ rather than a tactical approach. It then highlighted the following three key barriers to embracing digital:

  • Lack of clear digital strategy for the organization
  • Incremental value proposition and effective delivery
  • Change management

McKinsey & Co in its August 2015 report, titled ‘The road to digital success in pharma’ also indicated, though differently, lack of a clear strategic direction and focus in this area. The study noted: ‘Most pharma companies have started to build some digital capabilities, but the talent and resources for their efforts can be fragmented, often across hundreds of small initiatives. Without clear strategic direction and strong senior sponsorship, digital initiatives often struggle to secure the funding and human resources required to reach a viable scale, and they cannot overcome barriers related to inflexible legacy IT systems.’

Based on the above finding, the paper proposed three strategic actions for pharma companies to place it on the right trajectory, capturing the differential value of digital, as follows:

  • Develop the right organization for new business models with significant value addition from digital. This, I reckon, would involve a cultural shift.
  • Focus on two or three flagship initiatives, such as building a digital ecosystem for patient adherence to a blockbuster drug.
  • Run collaborative experiments, and then scale what works, such as putting the right people from IT, business compliance, and outside partners in a ‘war room’ to run quick test-and-learn cycles of a well deliberated digital strategic initiative. Where results are positive, scale those up.

Personalization in every facet of the value delivery system:

As we move ahead, personalization in virtually every facet of the value delivery system is unlikely to remain optional for the Indian pharma players. With this wind of change gathering further momentum, many will eventually witness a mind-boggling level of personalization – spanning across from personalized diagnosis of serious ailments based on complex genomics, doctors’ writing personalized medicines to tech savvy pharmacists dispensing 3D printed individualized formulations.

This trend will continue evolving with an ascending trend of outcomes, breaking all conceivable barriers. Accordingly, services to patients and physicians would also demand more personalization, along with the other stakeholder engagement process.

Most of these may appear no more than a figment of imagination today, or probably a science fiction to many – just as what the incredible narrative of unleashing unfathomable potential of the Internet appeared to so many, not so long ago. Indian pharma players may prefer to wish away this emerging scenario, but at their own peril.

Conclusion:

The Indian pharma industry is currently passing through a phase of transition to move into the digitized world. Just doing digitally whatever is being done manually now or earlier, won’t suffice, any longer.

Giving shape to a robust, comprehensive digital strategic game plan for the organization, as a whole, is the need of the hour. Pharma CEOs would require leading their respective core teams to the drawing boards for charting out this digital pathway, without further delay.

This would be a game changer, as constantly delighting the stakeholders with the best possible value addition in business, emerges as the primary means for sustainable organizational excellence. Long term success in this effort, would call for constant upgradation of the state of the art digital platforms and tools.

This is sine qua non to pharma success in the digitized world – offering a strong foothold as the new paradigm ushers in. Envisioning, what all-round excellence in business would entail in a rapidly evolving digitized world, and championing its effective implementation on the ground, sooner, is now a critical accomplishment factor for pharma CEOs in India.

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.

Indian Pharma To Stay Ahead of The Technology Curve

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In the ever-changing business environment, many industrial sectors have now started leveraging different cutting-edge technological platforms to improve overall strategic and operational effectiveness, keeping a sharp focus on better stakeholder engagement for greater customer satisfaction.

These companies have accepted the inevitability of a paradigm shift in the algorithm of the traditional business process. It has dawned on them that it may not be possible to be in the pole position by tweaking the existing process with multiple incremental changes – a time is just right now to take a quantum leap in this direction. Placing the company ahead of the technology curve to acquire the critical X-factor in outperforming the competition is going to be the new mantra. This is likely to happen even in the sales and marketing domains, much sooner than one can possibly imagine, as the marketplace becomes increasingly tougher.

Moving closer to this direction, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based digital tools, I reckon, is likely to be one of the key game changers. The term AI was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is usually defined as the science of making computers do things that require intelligence when done by humans. AI helps to ferret out critical answers to many real-life issues and gain a competitive edge in business management, by creating and then effectively analyzing a huge pool of real life data.

AI is the fulcrum of business operations for several leading companies of the world, such as, Apple, Amazon and Uber. It has already started replacing human intelligence in a number key business operations in various industries. As a widely-known Indian business leader recently said, anything that can go digital will go digital. This wave is unstoppable in this modern era.

In this article, I shall restrict the scope of discussion to the application of AI in pharma sales and marketing.

A recent illustration from India:

The application of AI via a digital tool, called Chatbot – the short form of ‘Chat Robot’, is one of the ways in this direction. It is a complex computer program that simulates human conversation, or chat, through auditory or textual methods. Various industries have now started developing the Chatbot dialog application systems for a specialized purpose of human communication, including a variety of customer interaction, information acquisition and providing a range of customized services to the target group.

To illustrate the above point, let me draw upon a recent example from the banking sector of India. On March 05, 2017, a leading bank in India announced the launch of an AI-driven Chatbot named Eva, coined from the words Electronic Virtual Assistant (EVA), to add more value to their services for greater customer satisfaction.

According to reports, Eva is India’s first AI driven banking Chatbot that can answer millions of customer queries on its own, across multiple channels, immediately. It assimilates knowledge from thousands of sources and provide answers in a simple to understand language format in under 0.4 seconds. This is a good example of taking a quantum leap in improving operational efficiency by delighting the new generation of customers. “Within the first few days of its launch, Eva has answered over 100,000 queries from thousands of customers from 17 countries across the globe” – the bank reportedly claimed.

To do routine services more efficiently with a customer-centric approach, this AI-based  Bank OnChat combines a disruptive technology platform for a human-like conversation, powered by AI, and the Bank’s deep domain expertise and long acquired insight of banking related customers. Earlier this year, for a similar customer-oriented initiative using AI and Robotics technologies, the same bank launched an interactive  humanoid called Intelligent Robotic Assistant or IRA.

Although, these are just illustrations in the Indian context, an important question that surfaces: if these can happen in the banking industry, why not in the pharma sector of India?

Resisting changes versus finding innovative means to overcome challenges:

Coming back to the pharma industry, we all are aware that this knowledge sector, over the last four and a half decades in India, has been navigating through umpteen challenges, none of which has been easy, by any measure.

Nevertheless, as compared to the past, I notice a palpable difference today. Significantly more number of shrill voices with fierce resistance to changes are now outnumbering the out of box mindset, desire and efforts to still thrive, by overcoming those critical challenges. Since the formative years of the Indian pharma industry, it has been successfully overcoming the challenges of change, which are unavoidable though.

Such kind of indomitable ‘animal spirit’ within many leaders of the Indian pharma industry, created today’s national pharma behemoths like, Sun Pharma, Lupin, Cadila, Dr. Reddy’s, Alkem and many others. They are thriving despite continuation of immensely challenging business environment and tough socioeconomic demand in the country. By the way, the second richest person in India is from the Indian pharma industry and grew from a scratch, during this very period.

Making creative changes help, moaning doesn’t:

While facing the newer sets of challenges today, many industry greenhorns, I reckon, need to spend more quality time to effectively overcome these turbulences – provided of course they possess the requisite mindset, knowledge and other wherewithal.

Acquiring new insight through modern technological platforms, such as AI, will pay a rich dividend. Better customer engagement and relationship management with new genres of AI tools, furnishing stimulating and modern web-based content with personalized access, would help achieve the desired strategic goals in the changing paradigm – but just moaning won’t, surely.

A few global pharma players are now fathoming the scope and depth of this area, most others are still not sure about its usefulness for customer engagement and interactions, and commensurate real-life data requirements for AI related analytics.

A predictable pattern of a series of unpredictable challenges and developments:

According to Eularis, integrating AI based analytics with a pharma product offerings can provide substantial benefits including, among others, the following:

  • Identification of both tangible and intangible enhanced value proposition
  • Enhanced competitor differentiation
  • Optimal resource allocation for maximum market share gain, revenue and profit
  • Ability to see which levers to pull to maximize growth
  • Customizing sales and marketing messaging for greater customer engagement
  • Automation of sales and marketing messages and channels.

In my view, while moving in this direction, AI based analytics are now far more reliable than any human analysis of the humongous volume of different kinds of data. Doing so is sometimes beyond the capacity of any conventional computers that a marketing professional generally uses for this purpose. The prime requirement, therefore, is not just huge volume of data per se, but good quality of a decent volume of data, that a state of the art analytics would be able to meaningfully deliver to meet specific requirements of pharma marketers for creating a cutting-edge marketing strategy.

This will be an absolute necessity in the complexity of an evolving new paradigm in the cyberspace. In a similar context, as I wrote even earlier, any such technology-driven changes would usually follow a predictable pattern of a series of unpredictable challenges and developments in the business environment, which has already commenced in the pharma industry.

The Market:

According to an April 2013 article, published by the McKinsey  Global Institute, applying big-data strategies to better inform decision making could generate up to US$100 billion in value annually only across the US health care system, by optimizing innovation, improving the efficiency of research and clinical trials, and building new tools for physicians, consumers, insurers, and regulators to meeting the promise of more individualized approaches.

Mandatory generic prescriptions won’t make pharma marketing less important:

Even if the much talked about mandatory prescription in generic names comes to fruition, the new paradigm won’t make pharma marketing less important. This would, however, be more about providing patient-centric, credible and tangible disease management or treatment solutions or both, rather than just selling a drug giving a trade name to it.

Thus, the need for interaction with physicians by the pharma players, besides some additional new target groups, would continue to remain important. Nonetheless, the message – mostly its form, substantive content, the targeting process and the usage of various tools for delivery of the same, would undergo substantive modifications. These changes would generally be prompted by fresh thinking, together with a fresh pair of eyes and mind, in the prevailing business environment, at any given point of time, well supported by data and tested with state of art analytics. The depth and gravity of environmental changes may also hasten the process of digital transformation of pharma sales and marketing, in various ways.

Those who are still trying harder to milk the traditional prescription demand generation process to the extent possible, despite its lesser and lesser yield, would need to introspect now, if they are able to. The time, and the prevailing pharma business environment probably demands jettisoning the conventional mindset faster, and search for the best-suited and most innovative modern tools to hit the bull’s eye. The young pharma professionals with a ‘can do’ spirit to effectively navigate through the strong headwind, are likely to emerge as early winners – provided of course their seniors and diehard ‘trainers’ don’t block their required elbow space.

‘Virtual Representatives’:

Deploying ‘Virtual Representatives (VR)’, well- supported by analytics for key target customers that QuintilesIMS is recommending, could be one among several other important examples in this area. VRs are appropriately equipped to take any doctor’s call online, for any product or related information, at any time the physicians find convenient – during or after their busy practicing hours.

The ‘push-pull’ balance between the doctors and the pharma players for such engagements can also be appropriately configured, and that too at a fraction of the current cost incurred to for similar purpose. This process and the technology used will be quite close to Chatbot, that has recently been introduced by an Indian bank, as illustrated above.

In conclusion:

Despite the rapidly changing business environment, pressing socioeconomic demands and a national dream for ‘Digital India’, the pharma industry hasn’t demonstrated any significant appetite for a change in the process of doing the business in the country. Individual players, by and large, have remained mostly consistent in strictly adhering to much tried processes and tools, though in their multiple permutations and combinations, especially in the domain of sales and marketing.

Other industries, like banking – also facing different types of tough challenges, are making efforts to stay ahead of the technology curve for operational excellence and greater consumer satisfaction. Fast scaling up of digital applications, such as Chatbots, Humanoids and the likes, vindicate this point.

Notwithstanding the availability of a large gamut of cutting-edge technological platforms, such as those based on AI, most players within the pharma industry continue to be rather slow in adopting these important and innovative resources. Could it be due to dearth of requisite talent, especially in pharma sales and marketing leadership within the industry? Well, many may argue so – some may also feel otherwise. Nevertheless, finding the right answer for a slow response of pharma in this domain still remains elusive.

That said, amid a gradually shifting paradigm, Indian pharma companies may wish to consider imbibing innovative technological interventions, such as, AI-based digital applications in sales and marketing. This has a great potential to successfully sail through many uncertainties, not just the latest one. It would also help changing the traditional ball game with a flexible, multitasking and contemporary one – right from conceptualizing – to charting out a customer-centric sales and marketing strategy – and then its immaculate execution, catapulting the company to a new and fascinating growth orbit altogether. Thus, staying ahead of the technology curve by the Indian pharma players, assumes critical importance for a long-term business sustainability, 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.

The Stakeholder-Mix Has Changed, But Pharma Marketing Has Not

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“We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for profit. Profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they never fail to appear.”

In 1952, George Wilhelm Herman Emanuel Merck, the then President of Merck & Co of the United States said this. He was then aptly quoted on the front cover of the ‘Time Magazine’, epitomizing his clear vision for the company: “Medicine is for people, not for the profits”.

The globally acclaimed Management Guru – Peter F. Drucker had also clearly articulated in his management classics that, “Profit is not the purpose of business and the concept of profit maximization is not only meaningless, but dangerous.” He further said, “There is only one valid purpose of a business, and that is to create a customer” 

As this is an ongoing process, in the pharma perspective, it may be construed as ensuring access to new drugs for an increasing number of patients.

It really worked: 

In those days, driven by such visionary leadership, the pharma used to be one of the most respected industries and Merck topped the list of the most admired corporations in America. It is clear that pharma leadership at that time wanted to make ‘inclusive growth’, both in the letter and spirit, as an integral part of the organizational progress, moving with time.

Thus, it worked. The sales and marketing growth of the global drug industry at that time was not lackluster, either, in any way. The R&D pipeline of the drug companies used to be also rich, with regular flow of breakthrough new products too. 

Straying away from ‘inclusive’ to ‘self-serving’ strategies:

Much water has flown down the bridges, since then, so is the change in the public and other stakeholders’ perception about the pharma industry, in general. 

Sharply in contrast with George W. Merck’s (Merck & Co) vision in 1952 that “Medicine is for people, not for the profits”, in December 2013 the global CEO of Bayer reportedly proclaimed in public that: “Bayer didn’t develop its cancer drug, Nexavar (sorafenib) for India but for Western Patients that can afford it.” 

It appears that the focus of the pharma industry on ‘inclusive growth’ seems to have strayed away to ‘self-serving growth’, with the passage of time. As a result, a large majority of the new stakeholders started harboring a strong negative feeling about the same industry that continues its active engagement with the very same business of developing new drugs that save many precious lives. 

Granted that the business environment has changed since then, with increasing complexities. Nonetheless, there does not seem to be any justifiable reason for straying away from ‘inclusive growth’ strategies.                                         

As are regularly being reported, both in the global and local media, mindless arrogance on fixing exorbitant high new drug prices severely limiting their access, unabated malpractices in drug marketing and escaping with hefty fines, releasing only favorable clinical trial data, just to mention a few, are giving the industry image a strong tail spin.

Stakeholders changed, but pharma marketing did not:

Keeping the same strategic direction and pace, overall pharma brand marketing strategy also continued to be increasingly ‘self-serving’, and tradition bound. Success, and more success in building relationship with the doctors, whatever may be the means, is still considered as the magic wand for business excellence, with any pharma brand. Thus, since over decades, building and strengthening the relationship with doctors, continue to remain the primary fulcrum for conceptualizing pharma marketing strategies. 

It does not seem to have not dawned yet for the pharma marketers, that over a period of time, the market is undergoing a metamorphosis, with several key changes, and some of these would be quite disruptive in the traditional pharma marketing ball game. Consequently, the above key the fulcrum of pharma marketing is also gradually shifting, slowly but surely.

In this article, I shall deliberate only on this area.

A new marketing paradigm:

The key customer in the pharma business is no longer just the doctors. That was the bygone paradigm. The pharma stakeholders’ mix is no longer the same as what it used to be. 

The evolving new paradigm constitutes multitude of important stakeholders, requiring a comprehensive multi-stakeholder approach in modern day’s pharma marketing game plan.

Patients, governments, policy influencers, health insurance providers, hospital administrators, social media, and many others, have now started playing and increasing role in determining the consumption pattern of pharma brands, and their acceptability. More importantly, these not so influential stakeholders of the past, are gradually becoming instrumental in building overall pharma business environment too. This necessitates customized engagement strategy for each of these stakeholders, with high precision and relevance.

Changing mindset is critical: 

An effective response to this challenge of change, calls for a radical change in the marketing mindset of the top pharma marketers. The most basic of which, is a strong will to move away from the age old ‘one size fits all’ and ‘self-serving’ initiatives with some tweaking here or there, to a radically different ‘inclusive marketing’ approach.  In this game, both the types and the individual customer concerned, would occupy the center stage for any meaningful interactions on the brands and associated diseases, besides many other areas of relevance.

Multi-stakeholder – Multi-channel approach:

For a multi-stakeholder customized engagement, innovative use of multiple channels would play a crucial role, more than ever before.

Availability of state of the art digital tools, would facilitate crafting of comprehensive marketing strategies, accordingly. For example, for the doctors, some companies are moving towards e-detailing.

As I discussed in my article in this Blog titled, “e-detailing: The Future of Pharmaceutical Sales?” on September 13 2013, this modern way of interaction with the doctors is fast evolving. E-detailing is highly customized, very interactive, more effective, quite flexible, and at the same time cost-efficient too. Live analytics that e-detailing would provide instantly, could be of immense use while strategizing the game plans of pharmaceutical marketing.

A feel of the changing wind direction:

A relatively new book titled, “Good Pharma: How Marketing Creates Value in Pharma”, published in March 2014, and written by Marcel Corstjens, and Edouard Demeire, well captures some of the key changes in the pharma industry with a number interesting examples. 

The above book seems to somewhat respond to Ben Goldacre’s bestselling book ‘‘Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients’, which I discussed in this blog on October 15, 2012.  It made some important observations in many areas of pharma business. I am quoting below just a few of those incoming changes to give a feel on the urgent need of recasting the marketing models of the pharma industry:

On emerging markets’ like India:

“Emerging markets should not be seen as low-hanging fruits. Their prevalence of diseases may not be the same, the stakeholders may be very different. In addition, the healthcare infrastructure is often not very sophisticated, and these markets can be rather volatile and difficult to predict. It’s not a sure bet; you have to invest. … Companies need to commit seriously to building a heavily localized approach that is substantiated by a global reputation.” This is perhaps not happening in India, to a large extent, as I reckon.

On personalized Health Care (PHC): 

The new drugs brought to market by the pharma companies are not just expensive, but often work only for small segments of the patient population. In India this situation mostly leads to very high out of pocket expenditure, which often is wasted for the drug not working on the patient. Thus, the regulators and payers in the developing countries are setting the threshold for higher reimbursement. The authors observed that PHC is now being put forward as the industry’s best bet for satisfying stricter effectiveness criteria, not only by developing new drugs, but also by investing in the magical trio of the future: “drug-biomarker-diagnostic. In that case, pharma marketing would need to undergo a significant change, starting from now.

On ‘Category captains’:

The book also says, “The most financially successful companies in the past 20 years has been Novo-Nordisk. They have specialized in diabetes, they’re extremely good at that. Roche specializes in oncology. The larger the company, the more ‘captive’ areas they can have. The success of Novo-Nordisk, a relatively small company, proves firms of all sizes have a chance to compete, as long as they stick closely to their strengths. When this happens in a much larger scale, pharma marketing would also be quite different and more focused.

Many pharma companies are still avoiding to change, successfully. For example, as announced on May 31, 2016, Intercept Pharma of the United States announced its new liver disease drug with a hefty price tag of US$ 70,000 a year. According to the report, the company said, prices are justified by a drug’s level of innovation and cost savings for the healthcare system. This justification has now become very typical in the pharmaceutical world, which has been facing barrage of criticisms, including from Capitol Hill, about too-high drug prices.

However, as we move on, the writing on the wall seems to be very clear on the sustainability of health care business, the world over.

Conclusion:

Finally, the question arises, would the traditional approach still be good enough to achieve the desired sales and marketing objectives, any longer?

No, probably not, I reckon. With changed mindsets, ‘getting under the skin’ of each stakeholder, separately, would assume key importance. It would play a key role, while devising each component of any cutting-edge pharma sales and marketing strategy, tactic, and task.

The shift from the old paradigm, signals towards a total recast of pharma marketing to make it more ‘inclusive’, and not just ‘self-serving’. Newly crafted commensurate grand marketing plans and their effective implementation should satisfy the needs and wants of all stakeholders, simultaneously. Singular focus on building, or further strengthen the relationship with prescribing doctors, won’t be adequate enough, anymore.

Thus, the name of the new pharma ballgame would again be ‘inclusive marketing for inclusive growth’.

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.