Biopharma companies change market access strategies

Published: 14-Jun-2010

Three-quarters of European biopharma firms see economic situation as key challenge


Faced with a lack of future blockbusters and continuing reductions in healthcare spending, European biopharmaceutical companies are placing increased emphasis on their market access strategies, according to Cegedim Dendrite, the French provider of CRM software and healthcare data to the biopharma industry.

The Cegedim Dendrite Market Access Industry Report 2010 – a market research survey conducted in May this year across nearly 200 European executives from marketing, market access, market research and sales departments within biopharmaceutical organisations – showed that more than three-quarters (77%) of biopharma companies are feeling the strain of the economic situation.

However, despite 88% of respondents declaring that it is important to adapt their strategies in light of this and other contributing factors, and despite three quarters having the resources available to do so, there is a lack of faith in the ability to share information across the organisation (42%).

It would appear that in today’s payer-led health economy, 70% of companies are adapting their messaging to demonstrate their product’s tangible Return on Investment to these stakeholders, with 64% introducing initiatives to address the delivery of care and 25% adopting pay for performance strategies to gain approval of new medicines.

The shift from prescriber to payer was identified by 83% of respondents as the main issue affecting the progression of market access strategies. Of particular interest, the research also showed that only 38% of European biopharma companies feel that they have the ability to influence market access stakeholders.

In response to the challenges of market access, 83% of biopharma companies have introduced a strategy of Key Account Management (KAM), believing that specialised teams focused on the key stakeholders will have a positive influence. Successful market access cannot be achieved in an increasingly fragmented market if organisations do not take into account that local market differences will cause problems, the report says.

‘These results are a clear indication that the biopharmaceutical industry is still working to build closer relationships with market access stakeholders,’ said Laurent Labrune, ceo Cegedim Dendrite. ‘It is positive that KAM teams are being put in place, but there are various improvement opportunities to better share information across the organisation.’

The growing fragmentation of the market is creating new spheres of influence across national, regional and local health service organisations, and KAMs must be supported with excellent information that identifies the relevant stakeholders in these regional and local authority organisations, the report urges.

The ability to identify these networks is key to creating an effective market access strategy, as is the ability to reflect the new payer-led economy to deliver outcome-based messaging and messaging that supports a drug’s role within the entire care pathway – a pathway that will increasingly vary locally as a result of market fragmentation, it adds.

‘Delivery of successful market access will be optimal as companies fully adapt their strategies and organisational structures to reflect a payer-led health economy. However, this cannot be done in silos,’ Labrune stressed. ‘All parts of the market access team – from research and development to key account managers – must have the facilities available to share, track and measure the success of interactions across the health service network to achieve coherent or consistent market access.

‘This can only be achieved through company-wide 360-degree visibility of the components that contribute to the whole market access strategy.’

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