Tag Archives: Tapan Ray

Covid Prompts Pharma To Move Away From Competition Driven Business Model

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As deliberated in my just previous article in this blog, Covid has been a watershed in several areas of pharma business. One such key area is its competition driven strategic business model. It aims to deliver significant value for a longer time than the competition, protected by a patent thicket driven TINA factor – and only for those who can afford such patented drugs. It didn’t matter, if a vast majority of patients are denied access to these medicines, with a dangerous pricing trend acting as an insurmountable barrier. Flying solo has been the motto of most players in this ball game, to delight the stock markets.

Interestingly, Covid pandemic seems to be changing this model. Pharma industry, by and large, is now trying to demonstrate its core value for the society – moving away from displaying competition driven one-upmanship. In this article, I shall deliberate on this area.

Covid poses both – a humongous challenge and a great opportunity:

As the article, published in the MIT Sloan Management Review on April 16, 2020 highlights: ‘The COVID-19 pandemic may well prove to be the biggest challenge for humankind since World War II.’ The same holds good for the pharma industry, as well. The drug companies are now expected by all, to play a pivotal role in the fight against the pandemic ‘that is bringing health care systems to their knees and sending shock waves through economies across the globe.’

This is generally because, pharma industry possesses wherewithal to develop effective drugs and vaccines to combat this health crisis – if not alone, but certainly collectively. It also offers a great opportunity for pharma to ‘walk the talk,’ by demonstrating upfront that meeting all patients’ unmet needs lie at the core of the pharma business. As I quoted a global CEO in one of my articles articulating, this crisis also comes as ‘a Shot at Redemption in Pharma Industry.’

Thus, if the industry reacts quickly and responsibly, it may have the chance to also redeem a reputation that’s been tarnished for years. Some of these instances are, illegal marketing practices, corruption scandals, and obscene pricing of vital drugs, the MIT Sloan article underscored. Flying solo in this situation may not be just enough, if not foolhardy.

Flying solo in this situation may not be enough:

Taking this initiative won’t be a piece of cake, either, if pharma companies prefer to do it alone during this unprecedented health crisis.  The drug players will need to be willing and able to successfully collaborate with other players in the race to develop treatments and vaccines. Otherwise, their legitimacy will be fundamentally questioned, especially when the entire world is running against time.

The rationale of two top drug companies entering into collaborative arrangements is obvious – the realization that pooling of all resources together is the best way of delivering effective Covid related solutions to the society at the shortest possible time. The good news is, pharma has already taken the first step in this direction, even when some of them are competitors, in several areas – moving away from their competition driven business models, as of now.

Once strange bedfellows – now partners:

The article published in the Bloomberg Law on June 05, 2020 very aptly observed: ‘The race to address the pandemic has brought together strange bedfellows as big-name companies’ partner with their rivals.’ The Scientist also wrote on July 13, 2020: ‘The urgent need for tests and therapeutics has brought companies together and pushed researchers to work at breakneck speeds.’

One can find this happening on the  ground now, as some major pharma and biotech companies, including Eli Lilly, Novartis, Gilead, and AstraZeneca, formed a group called COVID R&D to share resources and expertise to try to accelerate the development of effective therapies and vaccines for COVID-19. Besides, Roche Holding AG and Gilead Sciences Inc. have teamed up on trials for a drug combination to treat Covid-19.

There are several instances of such collaboration also in the Covid vaccine area. For example, GlaxoSmithKline plc struck a deal with Sanofi to produce 1 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine booster. Besides, Pfizer from the US and BioNTech from Germany are joining hands to co-develop and distribute a potential Coronavirus vaccine, aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection.

It’s a reality today that Covid-19 has brought not just the strange bedfellows within pharma and biotech companies together. Academia and governments have also moved on to the same collaborative platforms, to save people from a deadly and super contagious infection, in the shortest possible time. We have witnessed this

in India, as well. For example, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Aurobindo Pharma Limited have also announced a collaboration to develop vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.

The rationale and some possible issues: 

Each of these players is bringing some expertise and intellectual property to the table. “As they work together, they’re going to create more, so you have the ‘yours,’ the ‘mine,’ and the ‘ours’ of collaboration,” as the Bloomberg Law points out. That said, any collaboration of such nature and scale will have its own share of legal issues, such as, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, revenue sharing models, and more.

The collaborators, in pursuit of saving mankind from Covid-19, are expected to find enough alternatives to resolve these glitches for a win-win outcome – not just for now, but much beyond – with the dawn of a new collaborative model. The rapid general acceptance of this collaborative model by more and more drug companies to meet unmet medical needs in many other areas – much faster, in all probability, will delight the health care consumers and also be appropriately rewarded.

Leveraging the collaborative business model beyond pandemic:

E that as it may, it still remains an open question to many, whether such collaborative model will be leveraged for an accelerated rate of drug, vaccine and diagnostics development beyond the pandemic.

The good news is, as The Scientist article reported, some pharma players are seriously pondering how to continue working in this new way – with the same sense of urgency and purpose, for other disease areas too. They believe, the lessons being learned with the collaborative models, may help expedite development of therapeutics in other serious conditions, such as, Alzheimer’s, intractable cancers and autoimmune diseases.

If and when it happens as a predominant business model, suffering patients and the society, in general, would lap it up and the innovators would be suitably rewarded. However, the paper also says, there are still some drug companies who prefer to continue working in a more insular fashion, as was happening in the old normal. But, experts also feel, that should not cause any worry, as long as majority prefers to continue following the collaborative models, in the new normal, as well.

Pharma would make a good profit from collaborative business models too:

For those who say that drug companies won’t make good profit from Covid drugs and vaccines, Pfizer CEO has an answer. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s CEO, reportedly, has no patience for the argument that pharmaceutical companies should not be making a profit on the drugs and vaccines they introduce to fight Covid-19. This article highlights, at $19.50 per dose, the 1.3 billion doses of Pfizer BioNTech Covid vaccine that the Pfizer plans to make by the end of next year, could translate to nearly $13 billion in sales, after the company splits its revenue with its partner BioNTech. It is roughly the same as Pfizer’s all-time best-selling drug Lipitor sold in its best year.

Adding to it, another article on the same issue, published by Fierce Pharma on August 13, 2020, further reinforced the above expectation. It wrote, the longtime Evercore ISI pharma analyst haspredicted the total market for COVID-19 vaccines would be worth $100 billion in sales and $40 billion in post-tax profits. It assumed frontrunner Moderna would supply about 40 percent of the market, Novavax would take 20 percent and the other vaccine developers would split the rest. “One could look at the field under this base scenario and conclude it is reasonably valued in total,” the analyst concluded.

Nonetheless, there could still be several points that remained unanswered in this analysis. But the bottom line is, the collaborative model is not just profitable, it starts generating profit earlier and faster – virtually eliminating the cost of possible delays when a company flies solo.

Conclusion:

With a seemingly flattening curve, the Covid pandemic still continues, alarmingly. As of October 25, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 7,864,811 of Coronavirus cases with 118,567 deaths.

With this backdrop, COVID-19 has provided the pharma industry a new opportunity to demonstrate its true value to the society – not the self-serving ones. It’s now clear that no one can rule out, there won’t be a similar unprecedented health catastrophe in the future too. It may come in various different forms, or may even be from a rapid and complex mutation of the same lethal virus.

Moreover, such crisis may not come and go in just a few months – may even linger for a long time. In any case, these may again be equally disruptive – or even more disruptive to lives, livelihoods and the economic growth engine. In such a scenario, putting the brightest scientific brains of the world together will be critical, and adding top speed to the process being the essence to come out of the crisis with least possible damages.

Covid pandemic has also demonstrated that the competition-based model of the drug could be a serious retarding force in that endeavor. What will matter, is a well-structured collaborative model that can create a win-win situation – both for patients and the business. I reckon, it’s about time to move into this model to find most effective drugs and treatment solutions for many other unmet needs related to a host of intractable diseases, much sooner.

There could, of course, be some business issues with this model. But those can be resolved amicably for an all-weather greater success in business, along with protecting the society – for all. From this overall perspective, it appears, Covid pandemic now sends a strong signal to pharma companies to move away from predominantly competition driven business models, expanding more into collaborative ones.

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.

 

Covid Propels Healthcare Into A Virtual World: A New Growth Driver For Pharma?

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Amid ongoing Covid pandemic, most discussions on pharma specific ‘digitalization’ initiatives continue to predominantly hover around its traditional business growth drivers. In fact, even before the Covid time, it was no different, in a smaller scale and with a lesser intensity, though.

Incidentally, since quite some time, with the explosion of different types of web-based businesses, offering opportunities to buy and receive, virtually everything, at one’s doorstep, many things started changing rapidly. Almost all businesses started offering the state of the art, easy to use smartphone app-based e-commerce solutions, in different formats, to grow their businesses. Alongside, more and more people started managing their daily needs and wants online, even in India. Intriguingly, despite the availability of telemedicine, telehealth and e-pharmacies, even in the old normal, most people continue to prefer in-person health care solutions, including buying medicines.

Then came a bolt from the blue – the unprecedented global health crisis, caused by Covid-19. Almost overnight, amid requirements of maintaining stringent personal measures to keep Covid at bay, making in-person doctor-calls for brand demand generation activities, posed a great challenge. Doctors, too, became hesitant to meet general patients and medical representatives, in that situation. Thus, to keep the business up and running, most pharma companies gave top priority in finding out a digital solution for the brand demand generation processes. Interestingly, this was happening, when many patients, especially those with non-Covid ailments, also faced a similar situation to meet their health care needs.

Finding no other viable alternatives, many patients were pushed to search for a robust digital solution for health care needs, as well – just as they were already meeting their other regular needs – online. In that sense, Covid propelled many patients to step into a new virtual world of healthcare - telehealth or telemedicine. As mentioned above, although, these services were up there in pre-Covid days, many patients, apparently rediscovered them, in a new Avatar, to get relief from ailments and also save their lives.

On a hindsight, it appears, why the need to leverage telehealth or telemedicine in that crisis, did not appear to be a priority for most pharma companies to foster patient-centric growth of the business. Thus, continuing with the core concept of my previous article, – this article, will focus on the possibility of pharma spearheading the process, aiming for a win-win outcome – boosting access to high quality affordable care for all, on the one hand. And simultaneously, harnessing this new growth driver to excel in the business, on the other.  

Telehealth or e-health will grow just as other e-businesses, unhindered: 

With the Government of India issuing guideline for telemedicine practices on March 25, 2020 and later, on May 12, 2020, publishing those guidelines in the gazette, ‘Telemedicine’ has been made a high priority health care enabler. The notified guidelines also make telemedicine consultation provided by a Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, legally permissible. In addition, effective October 01, 2020, Telemedicine costs will be covered under medical insurance in accordance with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s (IRDAI) new guidelines.

The net effect of these measures will not just help reduce pressure on the fragile public healthcare infrastructure of the country, but will also expand access to lower cost and high-quality private care to a large number of people.  

Telemedicine is here to stay and be a key pharma growth driver:

With Covid propelling health care into virtual platforms, providing and receiving medical care through telehealth has become a necessity for many people, for different reasons. However, the question that surfaces, will patients return to the old normal, if and when the pandemic ends?

The article – ‘3 reasons telehealth is here to stay,’ published by the MedCity News on October 09, 2020, presents a practicing physician’s perspective on this issue. The author envisages, ‘telemedicine will continue to gain traction with my colleagues and most likely, become a permanent clinical option for patient care.’ Going by such hands-on experience, I reckon, telemedicine will continue to grow for several important reasons, such as:

  • Technology to make telehealth increasingly user friendly: Ongoing IT innovation is making telehealth platforms simple and more effective for doctors and a large number of patients belonging to all age groups. “All they have to do is click a link on their smartphones, which is sent to them via text automatically.” Thus, these tools will increasingly become the best option for treating a broad range of conditions, long after the pandemic subsides.
  • Telemedicine costs are covered under medical insurance, now: Effective October 01, 2020,Telemedicine costs will be covered under medical insurance, even in India. Moreover,‘Telemedicine’ has now been made a high priority health care enabler, carrying a permanent legal status in India. 
  • Health Equity and affordable care: Access to affordable health care is not evenly distributed across the India. Telehealth can help fill these gaps, with increased affordable access for all, even in rural India, as patient location won’t be a problem in getting prompt and quality care at a low cost.

From the above perspective, it appears, it’s high time for pharma to leverage Telemedicine and Telehealth as a major growth driver, powered by innovative business strategies.

Is there any difference between Telemedicine and Telehealth?

Very often these two words are used interchangeably. Mostly because, both telemedicine and telehealth are the practice of medicine using technology to deliver care at a distance.

Telemedicine offers remote clinical services, such as, virtual consultations, diagnosis, prescriptions, preventative care, monitoring via telecommunication platforms, including text, video chat, wearable devices or even phone calls. Whereas, telehealth, in addition, can include remote non-clinical services, such as health care training, administrations and continuing medical education.

Reasons for pharma’s cashing on this new growth driver at a low cost:

Besides Government’s support to telehealth and telemedicine, growing health care consumer demand and user-friendly technologies, are catapulting virtual care to the mainstream health care delivery systems. In tandem, driven by unique and long-term value offerings, telemedicine is being increasingly recognized as a critical means to get prompt care for minor but urgent ailments. Consequently, moreusers are getting attracted to its convenience and benefits, which may have a snowballing effect. Some of which are as follows:

  • Prompt access to disease treatment services, as and when needed by patients, without any long waiting time, for any reason.
  • Significant health care cost saving for all – more for rural population who will be able to avoid long distance travel, involving both time and money, besides associating hassles.
  • Prompt follow-up consultation facilities, will help avoid disease complications, reducing the burden to hospitals for secondary or tertiary care.
  • Further, pharma can offer even greater patient satisfaction by leveraging virtual healthcare platforms, as these will help ensure more effective follow-up and enhanced treatment convenience than traditional in-person visits. Several studies, such as the article, published in ‘The American Journal of Managed Care,’ on January 15, 2020, vindicate this point.

In short, accelerating rate of use – with the increasing need for prompt, easy and affordable access to care, are driving telemedicine to be an integral part of healthcare service delivery system. Which is why, expansion of pharma business in this new virtual space, with well-integrated collaborative strategies, could prove to be a key growth driver – over a long period of time.

Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be any need to deploy a large and cost-intensive field force, as is usually followed for expansion of pharma business in newer areas. This is because, ‘telemedicine requires a different approach to promotion.’

Telemedicine requires a different approach to promotion

That telehealth requires a different approach to marketing and promotion from traditional pharma marketing, was deliberated by ZS in the article -‘Four telemedicine myths for pharma to avoid,’ published on July 05, 2020. The paper underscored, ‘instead of building brand awareness and engaging patients in education and information, telehealth promotion needs to drive patients to take one specific action: call today!’ It further elaborated:

  • Brands that bury the telehealth link on page 8 of their website or make linking to a physician one of more than 20 different calls to action, will find low patient engagement and low pull through.
  • As virtual health care is here to stay, telehealth itself should be a strategy for active promotion, by optimizing the steps to get patients connected to a physician in the shortest and the easiest way possible.

From this perspective, brands that will find the right pathway for engaging in telehealth, will reap the benefits of increased engagement with patients and telehealth physicians. To achieve this objective, with a robust, commercial strategy, the first step for each brand will start with understanding the needs of patients and physicians that needs to be addressed on priority. Then comes, mapping out how the brand will get used to meet those needs.

Conclusion:

We are still in the midst of an unprecedented new Coronavirus pandemic. As of October 18, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 7,494,551 of Coronavirus cases with 114,064 deaths.

With the pandemic severely curbing most patients’ access to care – following the traditional process, Covid propelled health care into a virtual world, almost in no time. Telemedicine brought to the fore, its game changing potential to provide expanded access to high quality and affordable health care, through multiple channels, sans physical presence. Location of a patient or of a competent physician isn’t an issue, any longer, in the disease treatment process. With telemedicine patients will be able to get treated as and when they will want.

The future of Telehealth or telemedicine appears to be promising even beyond Covid time, with more people preferring digital platforms for affordable and more convenient medical care than in-person visits. With virtual care getting integrated into traditional health care delivery systems, pharma players will need to explore this space, as a new growth driver – for wider reach, and greater share of mind of customers for their respective brands.

For Telemedicine to be successful – benefitting a vast majority of both urban and rural populations, country’s health policy makers and, especially the pharma industry should work in unison. Only then, the net outcome will offer a win-win situation – both for the Government and also for the drug industry. It will help expand access to high quality and affordable care to all – seamlessly, irrespective of location. Consequently, pharma marketers will get access to another powerful business growth driver – in telemedicine. Its time about time for all to act – sooner the better.

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.

 

Create Purpose-Driven-Brands To Win Marketing Warfare In The New Reality

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As we navigate through the Covid days, the hope of somehow getting back to the pre-pandemic normal still lingers – notwithstanding a host of uncertainties in its way. The longing is driven by the hype of availability of scientifically proven, safe and effective drugs and vaccines – unrealistically soon, despite top experts still keeping their fingers crossed. Some are even more forthright in their expression, as reflected in a September 30, 2020 report. It flashed a headline - “There is no getting ‘back to normal. The sooner we accept that, the better.”

Alongside, COVID-19 crisis has also triggered some disruptive changes in the business processes around the world. Amid this global health crisis, interestingly, several global pharma CEOs are sensing a number of game-changing opportunities – having business implications, even much beyond the pandemic.

One such example, as Bloomberg reported on September 29, 2020, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Plc feels: The Covid Pandemic is ‘a Shot at Redemption in Pharma Industry.’ Elaborating the point, she said: ‘the sector’s push to find vaccines and drugs to end the crisis, if successful, could change the perception of pharmaceutical companies in the future.’ Coincidentally, the researchers from The Harris Poll found:

  • As of May, 40 percent of the American public said pharma’s reputation had improved since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak
  • And 81percent recalled seeing or hearing something about the industry during that time.
  • This is a continuation of the former trend that The Harris Poll first noted on March 2020.

There shouldn’t much doubt, either, that similar general impression on the pharma industry, with a varying degree, may now be felt in most countries, across the globe.

Curiously, flowing from this ‘redemption of pharma reputation’ angle – with new drugs and vaccines, the scope for leveraging another opportunity is also surfacing. This is from pharma ‘branding’ perspective and pertains to creating ‘purpose-driven brands’ for success in the new reality – during the pandemic and much beyond. In this article, I shall focus on the second area, and would start with its relevance to increasingly more informed health care consumers of date.

‘Purpose driven brands’ – attained greater relevance in Covid time:

The concept of creating ‘purpose driven brands,’ is profound – it goes much beyond product features, benefits and intrinsic values. It is motivated by – why the brands exist not just for providing a solution to manage or cure a disease, but also to meet a crucial need in society.

Studies have unfolded, with better stakeholder connection – and greater share of their mind, ‘purpose driven brands’ help improve brand loyalty, resulting into increased revenue and profit. We will see below, why in Covid time, this trend has started gathering wind on its sail, and deserves to find its place at the very core of any pharma branding strategy.

The consulting arm of The Beautiful Truth, also echoed the same sentiment in the article – ‘How Pharma Can Navigate Change With Purpose.’ It reconfirmed, at times of external crisis, like the global pandemic, creation of ‘purpose-driven brands’ is vital. Not just ‘for saving and maintaining business, but also for boosting internal team morale, and reconciling public trust.’

The pandemic has redefined the core purpose of a brand:

Another recent article –‘Through COVID-19, Leading Brands Have Found Their Purpose,’ published in CMO by Adobe, among many others, vindicated this point. Acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the meaning of brand purpose, the paper explained the reason for the same.

In pre-Covid days, many organizations used to build brands following traditional norms – curing or effectively managing a disease is the purpose of a brand. But, since last few years, a growing number of new generation health care customers expect a brand’s ‘purpose’ to expand beyond the product and the company. It has to be inclusive in nature – benefiting the macro-environment, including governments, health care professionals, and the public. With this expectation gathering momentum during Covid time, pharma players would also need to redefine the core ‘purpose’ of a brand. Incidentally, many pharma CEOs also believe, if this trend continues, the image of the industry would probably undergo a metamorphosis.

Surveys vindicate the rationale for redefinition:

Several top consulting organizations have published excellent articles covering a number of critical points in this area. One such paper - ‘Purpose is everything,’ was published in Deloitte Insights, on October 15, 2019. It wrote on how brands that authentically lead with ‘purpose’ are changing the nature of business today.

The rationale for redefinition of brand purpose, also gets reflected in a contemporary Deloitte survey, as quoted in the above article. It revealed the following top three issues that stakeholders identify with, while making decisions about brands: 

Top Issues

% of respondents
How the company treats its own people/employees

28
How the company treats the environment

20
How the company supports the community in which it operates

19

Aligning purpose to create deeper connections with stakeholders:

Especially at the Covid time, if companies try to align their purpose in doing good – for the society, they can build deeper connections with their stakeholders. And, in turn, amplify the company’s relevance in their stakeholders’ lives. From this perspective, it’s good to note in the above Bloomberg article, that one of the top pharma CEOs articulating the same in public. I reckon, increasingly, pharma businesses would endeavor harnessing the power and opportunity of aligning the ‘core purpose of brands’ with societal good, as came out in the above Deloitte article.

Mostly millennial generation favor ‘purpose-driven’ brands:

The initiation of this trend dates back to pre-Covid time with wider usage of internet. However, with the increasing democratization of health care - social media based instant information sharing, the ability to communicate with others as needed, have increased manifold. Consequently, stakeholders, particularly, the millennial generation with a different mindset, aspirations and expectations are expecting pharma players to act more on the pressing societal issues. This makes them lean towards a purpose driven brands and companies. The unprecedented Covid health crisis is acting as a force multiplier in this area.

Another study – ‘Why Customers Are Supporting ‘Purpose-Driven’ Brands,’ published in Link fluence epitomized this evolving customer preference succinctly. It reiterated, ‘It’s no longer enough for brands to deliver great products and experiences. Instead, consumers are demanding for brands to be more proactive and conscious in delivering value to society as a whole.’

‘Purpose-driven brands’ – the latest ‘marketing buzzword’?

This question was conclusively answered about two years ago -  from the 2018 Cone/Porter Novelli Purpose Study. Although, this survey was conducted in the United States, it has a global relevance amid Covid pandemic. Some of the key findings include: 

  • 78 percent believe companies must do more than just make money; they must positively impact society as well.
  • 77 percent feel a stronger emotional connection to Purpose-driven companies over traditional companies.
  • 66 percent would switch from a product they typically buy, for a new product from a purpose-driven company.
  • 68 percent is more willing to share content with their social networks over that of traditional companies. 

Examples of ‘purpose-driven’ pharma brands/companies:

Let me give just two examples each – from pre-Covid and Covid times. The article – ‘Mission-Drive Pharma Brands,’ published by Wonder on January 15, 2018, cited several examples of ‘purpose-driven’ pharma brands. This was based on a research of individual drug campaigns for top-selling drugs around that time. These include promotional campaigns on:

  • Humira: Highlighted the participation in a community food drive, and volunteering in a playground construction project.
  • Lyrica: Highlighted the engagement in a multi-generational interaction and helping others.

Encouragingly, while combating COVID-19, several pharma companies have also displayed a sense of ‘purpose’ to save the humanity from the pandemic, mainly through collaborative approaches. Let me quote below two such examples:

  • On April 14, 2020 GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi announced a very unusual collaboration to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, expeditiously. This was done for a greater purpose, responding to the critical need of the society – saving millions of lives.
  • Roche called on and campaigned for the governments for focusing on testing and prevention, to maintain adequate medical supplies for health care professionals  around the world. It also urged the health authorities to work closely with the life sciences industry to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic through international collaboration to tackle Covid-19 pandemic.

Conclusion:

Meanwhile, as on October 04, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 6,549,373 of Coronavirus cases with 101,812 deaths. Still there is no respite from Covid-19’s unprecedented onslaught on the country. Be that as it may,  coming back to the creation of ‘purpose-driven brands’ in the Covid time, let me quote again from the above CMO by Adobe article, where it underscored:“Never before have brands been asked to show their true purpose and leadership as they are today. It’s inspiring to see companies across industries and throughout the world come together to address some of the most pressing needs brought about by this crisis.”

As Accenture had articulated: ‘In an era of radical visibility, technology and media have given individuals the power to stand up for their opinions and beliefs on a grand scale.’ Keeping this in view, with gradually changing stakeholder mindset and expectations, the ‘purpose of a brand’ deserves to be a critical centerpiece in the pharma ‘branding’ process. Various studies have established – since pre-Covid time, and more during this pandemic – brands, reflecting a robust sense of ‘purpose’ on societal values, people and the environment, connect better with customers.

Consequently, as the stakeholders find these companies walk the talk, they develop a strong and sustainable brand preference, and reward the manufacturers commensurately, both directly and also through word of mouth. Alternatively, if the stated ‘brand purpose’ is not genuine – which customers can quickly find out through digital transparency, they shift their preferences to the deserving ones. Going by this growing trend, I reckon, creating ‘Purpose-Driven-Brands’ assumes a critical importance to win marketing warfare, in the new reality.

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.

 

Taming Two Critical Covid Uncertainties For Pharma’s Sustainable Growth

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The reasons behind a great urgency of the Governments, besides high expectations of the general public, to have the ‘ultimate solution’ very soon, against the ongoing pandemic, are understandable. However, various media-hyped narratives on their clinical trials, and timeframe for expected launch – ranging from November this year to anytime in 2021, are making many experts to raise eyebrows on the scientific processes followed for Covid vaccine development.

Exact answers to the ultimate efficacy standard, safety profile and dates of their availability to the entire population, are still not clear – not even to many domain experts. Besides, two other critical and fundamental questions in India, are related to huge financial resources and other wherewithal, such as, countrywide stringent cold-chain logistics network, required to achieve this goal.

While effective, safe and high-quality vaccines, as and when these will come, will be pivotal to contain the alarming spread of Covid-19 – and that too in a wave after wave manner. Alongside, the intense search for effective anti-Covid medicines are also expected to come to fruition. Doctors will then have in their arsenals a number of highly effective alternatives, that can predictably cure individuals, when infected by this lethal virus.

It causes a great concern when someone asks, when will those days of great relief to all come? For, those days may or may not be very soon – could well be for an indefinite period. No one seems to know the answer, yet.

Until then, pharma companies can’t afford to remain in a ‘quick-fix mode’ to address the problems related to Covid related market and consumer mindset changes. Choosing this path could eventually prove to be very costly, especially for the lost time in leveraging some key opportunities. Moving in that direction, would entail rebuilding the organization by creating a new work-culture – a mindset to be all-time ready for any disruptive changes in business. Most importantly, if or as and when it comes, the organization should not get as overwhelmed, as is happening during the current global pandemic.

In this article, I shall deliberate the following two critical and interrelated Covid-19 issues:

  • The uncertainty in achieving what everybody is expecting to get right away – getting a preventive vaccine or a cure for the infected patients.
  • Inordinate delay in getting prompt medical care by many patients for non-Covid related serious ailments, leading to complexity of the disease. How long this situation will continue still remains uncertain.

As things stand today, these uncertainties could continue for an indefinite period, making some of the Covid related changes irreversible. Thus, my aim will be, first to recap where we are today with these niggles. And then, focusing on the crucial need to pave a balanced pathway – uncharted by anyone, for destination success – in the new world order. Let me begin with the first issue first.

The uncertainty in achieving what everybody is expecting:

Although, some Covid vaccines, reportedly, will be ready by early 2021, uncertainties and delays are still anticipated on the way. Some the reasons may include the following:

  • A critical challenge: About 5.6 billion people worldwide would need to be immune in order to end the pandemic (NEJM). Thus, vaccination process may take years to achieve the coverage necessary for everyone to be protected.
  • Huge investment required: India would need to invest between Rs 3,000 -5,000 crore to create additional facilities for making a huge number of vaccines, required for the Indian population. Currently no one has the capacity to manufacture it for 1.3 billion Indian populations. Moreover, vaccine alone is not the solution to the COVID-19 problem, according to experts.
  • High vaccine cost in India: As these vaccines come from a very difficult platform its cost is going to be significantly higher than many other vaccines, so there is going to be a requirement to think about how we are going to fund this.
  • Coronavirus mutating, potentially evolving: As reported on September 24, 2020, Covid’s continual mutation may make it increasingly contagious. The study says, it’s possible that when our population-level immunity gets high, this Coronavirus will find ways to get around our immunity.
  • The logistical challenge of a lifetime: Getting billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines around the world quickly, would require 15,000 flights and 15 million cooling boxes. Stringent temperature control requirements for the vaccine supply chain must not be compromised at any point, not even in rural India. It’s worth noting, some of these vaccines may need to be kept at temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius. Currently, even in the developed world, the most efficient medical supply chain conventionally distributes vaccines at +2–8°C.
  • Vaccines may not provide complete protection: If COVID-19 re-infections are common, “vaccines might not completely protect against the virus” and would instead require a design similar to seasonal flu shots to protect from new variants. Interestingly. India may, reportedly, approve covid-19 vaccines that show 50 percent efficacy in clinical trials.

Converting problems into opportunities:

Such uncertainties may not only aggravate people’s overall health risks, but also their exposure to Covid infection. Drug companies, drug authorities and various Governments have been working hard on these issues. However, as flagged earlier, amid this health crisis, there is also another growing concern of a very serious nature. It pertains to many people delaying their non-Covid related medical care and medical interventions, for various reasons.

Pharmaceutical companies can convert this problem into a golden business opportunity with ‘patient-centric’ innovative strategies having a cutting-edge, and from a number of platforms. Let me illustrate this point with an interesting example of an initiative taken by a global pharma major, in this area.

A pace setting initiative:

On September 22, 2020, Fierce Pharma reported, ‘J&J wants everyone to know that taking care of their health can’t wait—even during a pandemic.’ This effort is based on the findings of a recent Harris Poll commissioned by them. This study revealed, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many Americans (68 percent) to delay healthcare treatment. It ranges from standard routine exams to important elective surgeries to ER visits – with physicians sharing concerns about the long-term impact of patients delaying care. The situation is expected to be no different in other countries of the world, including India.

Based on this finding Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have recently launched a US-based online initiative, aimed at giving both patients and physicians information and resources about health care options. This unique campaign has been named – “My Health Can’t Wait”.

By a statement J&J announced: “As the largest healthcare company in the world, we are committed to helping people live their healthiest lives, which means getting the care they need, when they need it.” It added: “Through My Health Can’t Wait, we hope to provide patients and healthcare providers with resources to help stay connected and prioritize their health care, both during this pandemic and in the future.” The point, especially take note of is, ‘both during this pandemic and in the future.’ This part of the above sentence of J&J, echoes the well-known management dictum – converting problem into opportunities, I add, even during the Covid pandemic.

I hope, many pharma players may also wish to pursue similar direction, responding to their own specific needs. But, not just to keep the head above water, in combating this unprecedented health crisis, but with a long-term strategic perspective – to rebuild the organization – for business excellence the new normal.

The concept reverberates:

I find the concept of ‘rebuilding the organization now, for business excellence the new normal’, reverberating in several expert voices. For example, The McKinsey ‘Briefing Note’ of September 16, 2020 – ‘COVID-19 and the great reset.’ It said: ‘The world anxiously awaits an effective COVID-19 vaccine that can be readily distributed. Until then, the priority is to re-energize organizations—to act rather than react. Even as the uncertainties of the COVID-19 crisis multiply, the goal must be to rebuild for the longer term.’

The authors emphasized, ‘a crisis has a way of bringing things to a head.’ Many believe, the coming months might be the best opportunity in memory for healthcare companies to pursue exponential innovation. This, according to McKinsey, ‘could create an additional $400 billion in value by 2025. And now is the time to claim the hundreds of billions of dollars that could be saved through productivity gains.’

Thus, I reckon, apart from creating a great business compulsion of working harder to neutralize the short-term operational constraints, Covid pandemic also provides a unique opportunity to pharma leadership. It gives a space for them for thinking long-term, and from a strategic perspective. The aim is to rebuild the organization, placing it at a higher trajectory for success, in an uncharted frontier, thus far.

Conclusion:

Meanwhile, as on September 27, 2020 morning, India had recorded a staggering figure of 5,992,532 of Coronavirus cases with 94,534 deaths. The virus’s unprecedented onslaught on the country still continues, unabated. Be that as it may, coming back to where I started from, I reckon, pharma companies, in general, could play a stellar role in converting the dual problems of uncertainties into a number of opportunities. In that process, they can create a win-win situation for all, in the health care space.

The uncertainties related to scientifically proven, safe and effective Covid drugs and vaccines will, hopefully, be addressed – sometime, by the scientists and medical researchers. However, as the above McKinsey paper wrote: ‘Until then, the priority is to re-energize organizations – to act rather than react. Even as the uncertainties of the COVID-19 crisis multiply, the goal must be to rebuild for the longer term.’ Thus, the second issue, needs to be creatively leveraged mostly by individual drug players, starting from now.

From this perspective, pharma leadership, will need to commit quality time of thinking people, supported by adequate resources, for conceiving and effectively implementing a ‘patient-centric’ strategy, that patients will fall for in the new normal. That being done, the top honchos, will require to roll up their sleeves to prioritize primary, secondary and tertiary action areas.

Instead of trying to do a little bit of everything, in all possible areas of Covid related changes in the market dynamics, ‘primary action areas’ ought to be the starting point, deploying all resources. And then, expand to the ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ ones, in a well-calibrated manner. Evaluation of results and tightening the strategic loose knots, if any, should be an ongoing process. If implementation of the process requires handholding, so be it. Because, taming these two critical Covid related uncertainties, is intimately related to a sustainable growth for the 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.

 

Aptness Of Pharma Marketing Audit In Covid Days And Beyond

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That, Covid-19 pandemic has changed the operational dynamics of many areas of the pharma industry, as compared to the old normal, is being felt by many. These changes generally fall into two categories. Some are broad industry specific changes, giving rise to a new normal. Whereas, a lot more could often be specific changes required by individual companies in the changing times – depending on how these companies were operating in pre-Covid days. The good news is, the industry specific ones are being well deliberated by many domain experts, almost on an ongoing basis.

Most experts are suggesting digital solutions, for a number of problem areas in the pharma industry as a whole. But, the reality is, for rapid adaptation of the new normal, there is also a crucial need to dovetail the Company specific solutions, with the industry specific generic ones. This effort will call for effective use of robust, well-structured and time-tested systems. However, not as many discussions seem to be taking place in this area, as on date.

As I see around, one such comprehensive and well proven approach is ‘Marketing Audit’. This can be effectively used to ascertain Company specific changes, required for successful pharma business operation during the Coronavirus triggered paradigm shift. It may not sound as zesty as a ‘digital approach,’ but remains fundamentally important for pharma marketers, nonetheless.

In this article, I shall discuss the relevance and the key importance of a comprehensive pharma Marketing Audit, in this trying time for business. Its key purpose is to give shape to a cutting-edge strategy in today’s unfamiliar order. Let me begin with a brief background of the same, for better understanding of all.

Marketing Audit demonstrated its perennial importance over decades:

To put it in perspective, let me refer to a landmark article by Philip Kotler, titled ‘‘The Marketing Audit Comes of Age.’ It was published by the MIT Sloan Management Review, on January 15, 1989. In his review of the need for Marketing Audit, one can get a sense of perennial importance of Marketing Audit, proven over decades.

In Kotler’s own words: ‘The marketing audit as an idea, dates back to the early 1950s.’ An executive at Booz Allen & Hamilton, conducted marketing audits as early as 1952. Its importance of improving business results, was captured by an excellent set of papers under the title ‘Analyzing and Improving Marketing Performance,’ published by the American Management Association, in 1959.  

Covid-19 Surveys highlight general trends, not any Company specific:

We all are witnessing these days, how the Coronavirus pandemic is changing the pharma consumers. In my June 22, 2020 article in this blog on ‘Enhancing Pharma Brand Experience in The New Normal,’ I highlighted some of the basic changes required in the traditional pharma sales and marketing practices.’ These were the generic changes in the marketplace involving the stakeholders. To illustrate this point better, let me cite some recent examples.

The pandemic has suddenly accelerated certain trends:

The lockdowns have brought to the fore certain shortcomings of the pharma industry, more than ever before. Consequently, its serious fallout compelled almost all players ‘to evaluate and adapt its roles and responsibilities almost overnight.’ This point was captured in the ‘Survey results: Accelerating digital transformation during COVID-19,’ published by Reuters Events– Pharma on September 04, 2020. Some of the survey findings included the following:

  • Although, adoption of digital engagement has accelerated, pharma’s ability to deliver exceptional virtual engagement and content is being put to test.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Content Management Systems (CMS) and customer engagement platforms were found wanting and not fully exploited.
  • There will be a greater emphasis on the Connected healthcare customer journey.
  • Providing a unique customer experience will emerge as a competitive edge.
  • The industry must re-direct resources accordingly, and re-tool to make the most of them.

Let’s now examine some India specific findings from another survey in this space.

Some India specific survey findings:

To explore the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian pharmaceutical industry, another survey, conducted by C Com Digital of India, came out with some interesting findings, some of which are as follows:

  • The new normal warrants a strategic shift in the business operation, besides engagement with doctors and patients.
  • Increasingly, drug companies are moving into online business operations from mostly offline operations of pre-Covid days.
  • Many companies are considering dedicating about 5 percent to 10 percent of their marketing budget towards creating webinars and online communications.
  • Teleconsultations and online consultations are steadily increasing and around 42 percent patients are getting their prescriptions in this way.
  • Doctor visits dropped by 5 percent only during March-April 2020 period.
  • Companies are expanding in online patient education, and online field staff training through custom made e-Learning modules.

As we find above, the emerging new trends are all generic in nature – not enough to prepare any comprehensive company specific strategy for success in the prevailing situation. This brings us to the question: What exactly is Marketing Audit and its relevance during pandemic days?

Relevance of Marketing Audit during pandemic days and beyond:

Thus, the extent of changes required on all sales and marketing related areas, during the pandemic period and beyond, has to be carefully and productively evaluated by each Company, separately. No wonder, why a comprehensive ‘Marketing Audit,’ is also considered “a marketing mirror” - so appropriately.

Without going into the theoretical details, let me first try to explain this terminology in simple terms. It has clearly been established that a Marketing Audit helps understanding, both internal and external marketing environments of an organization, in a comprehensive way. Mainly because, it involves an in-depth and data analysis of the concerned company’s business domain, not just to accurately diagnose the new areas of problems, but also to work out a contemporary – cutting edge marketing strategy.

Thus, I reckon, this tool should be effectively used by pharma marketers, as a high potential mechanism in the marketing warfare, especially during the global pandemic and beyond. Still, some can raise the question, what exactly pharma industry surveys will tell you and what those won’t, – and what gaps company specific surveys will help bridge.

The gaps that Marketing Audit will help bridge:

Industry specific surveys on Covid-19 pandemic would tell the Companies where they should aim to reach. However, each Company would still need to figure out where they currently are in those areas, and most importantly how to reach the target point. An effective Marketing Audit will help the Companies get exact information on where they currently are, and how to reach where they want to reach.

As the new normal is changing, it needs to be done periodically: 

The information obtained through a robust Marketing Audit will help address both customer and market needs – on the one hand and honing or reorganizing the company’s internal value delivery systems commensurately, on the other. However, when an unprecedented or a disruptive change, such as the Covid-19 pandemic keeps striking all conceivable entities, very hard, ‘the new normal’ keeps changing. In this situation, most of the past success ingredients will no longer yield results. Thus, to realign the business with changing market demand, pre-Covid strategic blueprint needs to be redrawn, alongside the necessary wherewithal required for the same.

Marketing Audit, therefore, becomes a periodic requirement for all organizations, assuming the importance of a key business success imperative, if not for survival in the new normal. Any delay in this area may lead to significant loss of Company business.

Conclusion:

According to Covid-19 update of Evaluate Pharma, ‘seemingly uncontrollable advance of Covid-19 in India,’ is perturbing. As on September 20 morning, the country had recorded a staggering figure of 5,400,619 of Coronavirus cases with 86,774 deaths, overtaking Brazil the week before.

The above report points out the potential danger of ‘the country’s health care system to buckle under the weight of hospital admissions for the virus.’ However disturbing this trend may be, from the pharma industry perspective, it sends, at least, four clear signals:

  • It’s a long-haul struggle for the business, as Covid-19 is not going to vanish any time soon.
  • The barriers to in-person interaction will continue for an indefinite period.
  • The market dynamics will keep changing, mostly based on Government’s new guidelines.
  • A robust, flexible, contemporary and comprehensive marketing strategy needs to be supported by stronger and time-tested marketing systems for all times.

From the above perspective, one such time-tested mechanism still remains – ‘the Marketing Audit.’ For business excellence during Covid times, it carries a game changing potential, by dovetailing the industry specific generic problems with company specific strategic solutions.

The criticality of ‘Marketing Audit’ does not remain limited just to bright pharma marketers. It also provides an equally critical top management decision support tool, especially for risk-benefit analysis of the corporate business. Thus, relevance and importance of ‘Marketing Audit’, would remain undiluted, not just during the Covid pandemic – but much beyond.

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.

Neutralize Covid-19 Impact on Drug Prices And Market Access For Faster Recovery

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Covid-19 pandemic that has not spared any facet of human lives and livelihoods, has also reignited several ongoing debates related to the drug industry. The need to urgently resolve these issues grows manifold, as the real magnitude of this health crisis doesn’t seem to be clear even to the key Government decision makers.

This is vindicated by the research paper, written by government scientists and other experts, published on September 10, 2020 in the Indian Journal of Medical Research. It reveals, India had nearly 6.5 million cases as early as May 2020. Whereas, according to the health ministry, the total number cases stood at around 180,000 in late May. This happened because, ‘large numbers of cases could have gone under the radar earlier this year, because testing was limited to symptomatic patients or states had varying testing rates,’ the paper highlighted.

From the pharma industry perspective, a pandemic of such magnitude is also causing indefinite delay in pre-planned market access of several important drugs and vaccines. Some are due to technical reasons. However, many others are related to their value-based cost-effectiveness in the new normal, when the pandemic has put enormous strain on health expenditure, across the world.

In this situation, past mechanisms of new drug pricing, are required to undergo significant changes. The new yardsticks, I reckon, will be based on two critical factors. The first – the disease treatment priorities, as will be decided jointly by both doctors and patients. And the second – the paying capacity of both payers and individual patients, based on the value that each treatment will offer – again, as perceived by patients.

As it appears, the impact of Covid-19 on the pharma industry will continue till the medium term, if not beyond. Consequently, the concept of new drug pricing – based on well-documented, differential value offerings of treatments, would need to be revisited and recalibrated. This has to be realigned with evolving patient needs. Considering the emerging scenario, this article will focus on the exigency to neutralize Covid-19 impact on new drug prices and pre-planned ‘market access’ – for faster business recovery.

Covid-19 has increased the drug price sensitivity:

The challenge of increasing drug price sensitivity – triggered by the new Coronavirus pandemic, has now assumed a global dimension. A June 18, 2020 study, flags: ‘Nine in 10 Concerned About Rising Drug Costs Due to COVID-19.’ Although, this particular study (Gallup Poll) was conducted in the United States, general public apprehension is no different in other parts of the world, including India, for various reasons.

Even in America, which is considered Eldorado for pharma business, primarily for unregulated drug pricing, is also changing with the impact of Covid-19. The reason being, reported instances of drug prices are rapidly rising, amid the pandemic. As the above Gallup Poll highlights, today ‘a large majority of Americans support direct negotiations by the federal government with the drug manufacturer on the price of a treatment for the disease itself.” Interestingly, ‘significant support exists across all major demographic groups.’

Other specialists on pharmaceutical pricing and market access, also envisage that pharmaceutical companies will be faced with increased price sensitivity, and are quite concerned with the long-term impact of the pandemic on health care systems.

Covid-19 pandemic would seriously impact pharma spending:

As quoted above, several other specialists for pharmaceutical pricing and market access have also pointed out some critical Covid-19 impact areas, including:

  • Tremendous increase in pandemic related public expenditure, could prompt further austerity measures in already strained health care budgets, besides job losses or pay cuts of scores of people for different reasons.
  • The pandemic is likely to result in a redistribution of health care funding towards infectious diseases (e.g. prioritization of antivirals and vaccines) and chronic diseases associated with worsening COVID-19 outcomes.
  • This may result in more drug pricing pressure in other disease areas, besides push for increasing use of similar cheaper generics and biosimilars, unless absolutely necessary.
  • Stricter monitoring of usage of medicines, especially in private hospitals, to ensure their use within the regulatory label and/or within the reimbursed population.
  • Possibility of mandatory price cuts either across the board or for drugs which have been on the market for a specific duration.

The report also envisages, pharmaceutical companies will be faced with increased price sensitivity and decrease in willingness to pay by authorities. Consequently, the key question in this area becomes: What impact will COVID-19 have on the future of pricing and market access? And how to address this issue, effectively? 

Need for an appropriate drug pricing models in the new normal:

Overall scenario for drug pricing model has not changed much, till Convid-19 pandemic overwhelmed the world. The age-old concept of drug pricing, being treated as almost given, is changing fast. As I wrote earlier, it started in the developed world, with newer concepts, such as, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), besides a few others. However, to illustrate the point, I shall focus only on the HTA model. It includes a multi-faceted assessment of the clinical, economic, ethical, legal, and societal perspectives that may be impacted by a new technology, procedure, drug, or process.

Application of HTA in Medicine Pricing:

The ‘Working Paper 6’ of June 2013, on ‘The Role of Health Technology Assessment in Medicine Pricing and Reimbursement,’ published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Health Action International (HAI), is worth referring to.

The paper aims to identify and describe the role of HTA in price-setting and reimbursement of pharmaceuticals, with a focus on its use in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, as Covid-19 is now fueling the drug price sensitivity across the globe, and not just in the LMIC, this reference will help drive home the point, as one faces today.

While combating health care resource crunch in the face of the Coronavirus quagmire, many countries are contemplating a variety of approaches to maintain affordable access to healthcare for patients. The concept of HTA is one such common approach. It includes pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices, medical and surgical procedures, besides the systems within which health is protected and maintained.

Relevance of a recalibrated HTA in the new normal:

For a new drug, as the Institute For Clinical And Economic Review (ICER) puts it, a final HTA report would attempt to answer the following questions, besides a few others:

  • Is it safe and effective?
  • Which patients benefit the most?
  • Is there a meaningful improvement in health status?
  • Can all people afford to pay who might need it?
  • Will it offer a good value in the long run?
  • What other considerations make it important?

These points need to be looked at keeping in view that Covid-19 pandemic has seriously impacted the health care spending. Thus, the process needs to be recalibrated in the new normal. In any case, HTA has the potential to play a critical role in new drug pricing, by assessing the intrinsic value of medicines that can significantly expand patient-access to care. In tandem, it could maximize the value for money in health expenditure with most efficient allocation of scarce health resources, that most countries are facing today. Nevertheless, there could well be a few company or country specific barriers to capture the value of a drug or treatment, as well. A robust plan for their mitigation needs to be well-thought through, to ensure effective implementation and achieve desirable outcomes.

HTA in India:

At least, on paper HTA exists even in India. The Government of India had created an institutional arrangement called “Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn)”, under the Department of Health Research (DHR). It was entrusted with collation and the generation of evidences on cost effectiveness and safety of health care interventions, including medicines and devices.

The key goals are, to reduce the cost of patient care, overall cost of medical treatment, reduction in out of pocket expenditure of patients, besides streamlining the medical reimbursement procedures. Nevertheless, it remains a million dollar question whether India would leverage this system to ensure fair pricing of new drugs in India.

Some pre-requisites to implement HTA – afresh:

In those countries, where HTA for drug pricing and reimbursement doesn’t already exist, there could be several pre-requisites. These may include, as the above paper indicates, establishing a medicines regulatory system, developing and enforcing legislation, employing the appropriate technical expertise, and the allocation of sector-wide financial resources in accordance with the decisions of the organization using the HTA.

That said, the bottom-line is, the quest to arrive at fair pricing for a new drug, could also help ‘market access’, especially in a difficult time, like today’s health care crisis. In that endeavor, let me briefly dwell on the concept of ‘fair pricing a drug’.    

The concept of ‘fair pricing a drug’:

This issue has been well deliberated by many experts around the world. However, let me quote a recent article – ‘Defining the concept of fair pricing for medicines,’ published by The BMJ on January 13, 2020.

The paper articulates, ‘a fair price for a medicine is affordable to the buyer while covering the seller’s costs and providing a reasonable profit margin. Within a fair pricing zone, a specific price may be higher or lower, possibly reflecting differential value.

Interestingly, the authors also noted: ‘Applying the framework to decision making would require access to data on R&D, manufacturing, and distribution costs, which is generally not publicly disclosed. This lack of transparency about costs undermines efforts to assess the fairness of medicines prices.’

The article underscored, lack of transparency in these areas, ‘also exacerbates information asymmetry to the sellers’ advantage.’ It suggested, disclosure can be enforced through legislation, regulation, and judicial action. Or as a condition of receiving public research funds, tax benefits, regulatory approval. Or listing in a formulary for reimbursement. ‘In the absence of disclosure, decision makers may rely on reasonable estimates based on publicly available information,’ the paper concluded.

Conclusion:

As recorded in the morning of September 13, 2020, total Coronavirus cases in India have reached a staggering figure of 4,754,356 with 78,614 deaths, overtaking Brazil. This trend continues going North, as days pass by.

All-pervasive Covid-19 pandemic is fueling severe resource constraints, especially for health care. Amid this complexity, to combat this deadly virus – alongside other non-Covid related illnesses – value added drugs and treatments could help overcome many hurdles in this area. They could help improve cost-effectiveness of treatments to price-sensitive patients, besides other stakeholders.

Recalibrated HTA mechanism, which I have used in this article as an example to effectively overcome prevailing drug price sensitivity, is one among a few others. Importantly, HTA mechanism exists even in India. It can be appropriately used for new drugs and vaccines pricing, if the Government wishes to.

On the other hand, it’s up to individual companies to choose any other price-value model’ that they will deem appropriate, to arrive at a ‘fair value for new drugs’. However, the goal remains common for all - Neutralizing Covid-19 impact on drug prices and market access, to ensure faster recovery of the business.

By: Tapan J. Ray   

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

Covid-19 Pushes Pharma To Walk The Talk of ‘Patient-Centricity’

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Echoing many other industries, such as, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), pharmaceutical industry leaders, as well, have been talking about putting their customer at the center stage of strategic decision-making processes. In other businesses this grand intent is generally expressed as, ‘customer oriented’ or ‘customer-focused’, or ‘customer-driven’, besides several other similar expressions.

However, in the pharma industry this popular expression is widely talked about as ‘patient-centricity.’ Nonetheless, it is also generally believed that pharma leaders, weren’t hugely inclined to ‘walk this talk’ – until Covid-19 pandemic struck the world – very hard. In this article, I shall delve into this area, focusing on several aspects of it. Let me begin with, what COVID-19 has taught about pharma’s ‘patient-centricity’ efforts.

What COVID-19 has taught about pharma’s patient-centricity efforts:

A recent study, titled, ‘What COVID-19 has taught us about pharma’s patient centricity efforts,’ published by ZS on July 05, 2020, unravels some interesting findings in this area. Some of those points are as follows:

  • ZS’ mid-2019 ‘Patient Centricity Industry Study’ had found nearly universal agreement about the importance and significance of being patient-centric.
  • But the investment for the same did not match the intent, creating an “optimism gap” where senior leaders think more progress than middle the management.
  • At that time, while 73 percent of participants agreed that ‘patient centricity’ is fundamental to their organization, only 16 percent said they understood their individual role in the organization’s ‘patient centricity’ initiatives.
  • Whereas, during the past few months as the industry responds to Covid-19 pandemic, ‘pharma has demonstrated that it can quickly mobilize to surround and support patients, making the workforce focus on the patient priorities.
  • Over the past three months, organizations were found to look at new ways to engage with patients. For example, patient panels to continually check in and monitor the impact on the patient experience, connecting with patient advocacy groups – to get a pulse on critical needs and leveraging the field force to hear from physicians where their patients need the most help.
  • These companies are also investing now to understand the impact of Coronavirus on the patient and partner with others in the ecosystem.

Some interesting industry initiatives during Covid-19 pandemic:

This  ZS study noted, several pharma companies are showing great flexibility and creativity in tapping into their combined expertise and skills to support patients and the healthcare community, in a time of need. Some of the interesting examples cited in the paper include:

  • Pfizer rolled out a five-point plan, including an R&D SWAT team to support vaccine development.
  • Lilly, Merck and others banded together to help employees with relevant skills, volunteer on the front lines of treatment
  • Several other pharma companies have also joined with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to share data.

I hasten to add, according to this study, some industry leaders did agree that COVID-19 has proven that it’s possible to actually be more patient centric in business operations for better outcomes. However, many pharma players would still need to ‘walk this talk’ and put in hard work with adequate resources in getting there – the study noted.

Could ‘patient-centric pathway lead to post Covid-19 business recovery?

Just lip service on ‘patient-centricity’, as witnessed earlier, is unlikely cut any ice in the new normal, as people start living with the new Coronavirus, in everyday life. Making this more touted, but less practiced concept work on ground in pharma, is expected to be one of the effective pathways for early business recovery, as we move on.

The McKinsey article of May 12, 2020, titled ‘Pharma operations: The path to recovery and the next normal’ has also flagged this issue, alongside a few more. Similar to the findings of the above ZS study, this paper also noted that ‘leaders of operations in the pharmaceutical industry have been historically slow to respond to changing times. Interestingly, during COVID-19 pandemic, many of those leaders were found highly responsive to the new demand of time. They ‘rallied to enable the supply of key medicines across borders, manage workforce safety, and handle evolving government restrictions, while beginning to prepare for new vaccines and therapeutics, it noted.

More importantly, several companies have now put in place crisis-response command centers. These hubs play critical roles to appropriately manage and bring stability in an otherwise unstable time. From this experience, in my view, ‘patient-centricity’ could be an effective pathway to follow for post Covid-19 business recovery. Having said that, let me try to tighten some loose knots of understanding in this specific area, as below. To start with, let us together recapitulate a brief background of evolution of ‘patient-centricity’ concept in the drug industry.

“No decision about me, without me”:

Not so long ago, the National Health Service (NHS) of U.K realized that every patient should be as actively involved in making decisions about their health and health care as they wish to be. Accordingly, in 2012 it released the White Paper - ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS,’ setting out the U.K Government’s vision of an NHS that puts patients and the public first, where “no decision about me, without me” is the norm.

The concept of ‘patient centricity’ in the pharma industry is believed to have grown from the above concept. The core idea of the concept, as defined in a BMJ article is, “Putting the patient first in an open and sustained engagement of the patient to respectfully and compassionately achieve the best experience and outcome for that person and their family”.

The authors envisage, effective implementation of the same would provide an opportunity for drug companies to adopt and use its core facets as reference points for patient engagement, throughout a product life cycle. In tandem, this also flags an important point: Why the concept of ‘patient-centricity’ is mostly talked so ‘passionately’ by almost all drug companies, while very few of them seem keen to ‘walk the talk?’

The key barriers to achieving ‘patient-centricity’:

The key puzzle on ‘Patient centricity: everyone wants it; not everyone gets it’, was well-deliberated by Reuters Events (Pharma), published on December 14, 2024. It pointed out – as an aim ‘patient-centricity’ is all too often overlooked, despite the fact that even several top pharma companies often express their desire to be patient centric organizations; such as:

  • “Inspired by patients, driven by science” (UCB);
  • “Science and patients…the heart of everything we do” (AstraZeneca);
  • “A global integrated healthcare leader focused on patients’ needs” (Sanofi).

Analyzing the overall reasons for the same, the paper articulated: ‘Difficulties in communication with patients, skepticism about their input, and unwillingness to relinquish control are some of the barriers to achieving patient centricity.’ Interestingly, this situation remains generally unchanged even today.

Conclusion:

Meanwhile, as recorded in the morning of September 06, 2020, total Coronavirus cases in India have reached a staggering figure of 4,113,811 with 70,679 deaths, despite every effort taken by the Government. As PTI reported on September 05, 2020: At the current pace, India will overtake Brazil early next week to become the country that has seen the second highest number of cases.’ With this perspective, let us now look at the concept of ‘patient-centricity’ for better treatment outcomes.

As deliberated earlier, just as providing affordable care for all – making ‘patent-centricity’ the centerpiece of the core business strategy for pharma, had remained akin to chasing the ‘Holy Grail’. This happened, despite last so many years one could easily spot inclusion ‘patient-centricity’ even in the corporate vision and mission statements of many drug companies.

As it appears today, the term ‘patient centricity’ remained another cliche, till Covid-19 disrupted the status quo of the old normal? But, will it last long? Only another robust study in the future, I reckon, will be able to confirm it. However, this would mostly depend on whether patients continue sending signals of: “No decision about me, without me,” for better health outcomes.

It’s not a terribly disputed fact, either that various stringent norms in the Covid lockdown period, have prompted many health care consumers switching from their good old health care practices, to the digital or online mode to meet with similar needs. Consequently, they are now becoming more digitally empowered than ever before. In this situation, leveraging AI with expert help, would help implement ‘patient-centricity’ more productively to meet challenges of the new normal.

If done with precision, it would help move even beyond ‘patient-centricity’ in the new normal, with better disease prevention or management and ‘connected healthcare,’ leading to better quality of lives for many. Thus, Covid-19 pandemic – pushing pharma to ‘Walk the Talk’ of ‘patient-centricity,’ if lasts long, could usher in a fundamental change in the health care space. It has demonstrated its huge potential during the ongoing pandemic to ensure patient-friendly, high quality, affordable and universal health care value delivery – for patients’ sake.

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.