Pharma Reform

With the inevitable US healthcare reform,  delivery of healthcare will become even more “managed” than it is today.  Traditional sales and marketing tactics are already becoming less effective and will eventually become obsolete in the evolving new healthcare market where the ability to influence individual prescribing practices will be significantly limited.  This is especially true for proprietary branded pharmaceuticals which are an easily identified, tangible target for restricting use by private and government payers looking to control the rising cost of healthcare.

Traditional marketing and sales will be replaced in this evolving new healthcare market with “managed market” teams of expertise.   These teams will require a new level of expertise to navigate the increasingly complex labyrinth of bureaucracy, to understand the points of influence within the multiple tiers of decision making, and to negotiate product availability, unrestricted use, and favorable pricing.  Managed plans already have a strong preference for generic drugs with over 60% of the prescription market today.  This means proprietary branded products, regardless of how effective and safe,  will be vying for a diminishing share of the prescription drug market as time goes.  Successful commercialization in this increasingly challenging market will depend on the expertise and credibility of the “managed market” teams.  Finding “world class” or “best in the industry” managed market teams of expertise is a critical success factor for pharmaceutical companies in the evolving new healthcare market and one of the three most important areas of a pharmaceutical company to build teams of expertise.

mike@pharmareform.com