Kal Patel, MD, CEO and co-founder of BrightInsight . He has over 20 years of experience in regulated pharma, medicine and digital health.
In my recent conversations with pharma CEOs, a common theme emerged: Frontline marketing teams are limited in their digital health strategy thinking.
The problem, these executives tell me—and I've seen as Amgen's director of sales for Enbrel—is that their marketing teams are still too traditional and increasingly digital. They still focus on TV advertising and digital marketing. When a support program is intended for a specific therapy, it's usually a glorified drug website transformed into an app with little or no personalization or interactivity for patients.
However, management believes that digitization is the ideal way to cut through the noise and have a greater impact on patient experience and outcomes.
Pharmaceutical leadership teams see digital technology as a potential solution to challenges facing organizations. On the one hand, the ability of competitors to fast-track and inspire each other's innovations is unmatched, exclusivity is slowly eroding. Traditional marketing efforts are under increasing pressure to demonstrate return on investment (ROI), television commercials for prescription drugs have reached saturation point, and pharmaceutical sales representatives have limited or no access to physician offices, much less access. Downward price pressure.
A large proportion of new drugs fail to achieve their growth targets. According to Deloitte's analysis of actual and projected sales of new drugs between 2012 and 2017, about 36% of respondents failed to meet market expectations in their first year, and 70% of them continued this trend after that first year.
Taken together, these constraints compel leaders to be bold in digitizing their companies They will take some steps to make this initiative a success.
1. Ask the right questions.
Using a conventional approach to market research for digital products leads to incorrect conclusions about real opportunities and their potential value. Digital solutions have the potential to fundamentally transform the patient experience compared to traditional therapies, but conventional market research cannot unlock this potential.
As an example, consider the modern banking industry. If you ask respondents what they expect from their bank (ATM, teller, phone), it's unlikely that people can do everything from home in an app. Instead, conduct market research that uncovers pain points along the fulfillment journey for everyone involved.
2. Increase Rx fill rate.
Most specialty drugs with prior authorization require patients to go through 12 to 20 touch points from writing the prescription to filling the prescription. With fewer touch points, buying a car or booking travel around the world can be easy. This results in lower fill and fill rates as patients take longer to fill prescriptions or fail to fill them at all. This is not good for patients, providers or the pharmaceutical industry. Digital tools that speed up or eliminate certain touchpoints can lead to higher prescription fill rates, which can improve outcomes, brand loyalty and sales.
3. Set the right incentives.
Establish rewards to encourage your internal teams to try and take risks. FOMU – fear of confusion – prevents leaders from taking risks on innovative marketing strategies and tactics designed to maximize the benefits of digitalization. Creating an environment that rewards bold new ideas can help turn things around.
For example, consider giving your digital team a bonus for launching an app that meets certain retention and engagement metrics. Drive cross-functional workflows to break down silos and ensure a culture of collaboration to facilitate the design and marketing of a digital solution with tangible impact.
4. Develop bold objectives.
Instead of measuring your performance against the performance of your peers, frontline marketing teams must master the art of the possible. Healthcare lags behind other industries in digital technology, so responding to the digital capabilities of the nearest competitor won't do much good. Instead, create meaningful benchmarks by looking at what other industries, including banking and automotive, are doing digitally.
Frontline pharma marketers need to feel empowered to pitch bold digital ideas to executives. Ultimately, management and leadership want to set new standards when it comes to technology. Your patients demand a smooth digital experience, and your business will benefit.
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