The link between marketing and market access
Marcus Deans argues that marketing should be at the heart of market access strategy.
By on Feb 25, 2010Marcus Deans argues that marketing should be at the heart of market access strategy.
First things first. What exactly is marketing? A simple question, you might think, but one that seems to elicit more than its fair share of Ummms and Ahhhs.
The people within the commercial/marketing department may attempt to answer the question with a degree of bravado and assuredness. You may hear the words customers, needs, promotion, and advertising.
Outside of the marketing department, the description may be more blunt and less flattering. Charges of wasting money or not contributing to the organizations profitability may well be brought. In addition, niceif ever so slightly patronizingphrases will also be heard about how creative the department is and how cool marketing really is.
Developing robust marketing strategies
All of this leads to a valuable point: In a world in which the definition of marketing is unclear and different depending on whom you ask, and where even marketing practitioners are unable to provide a common response, how can you expect to develop robust marketing strategies that can be implemented by the sales forces?
For the record, the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) definition of marketing is: The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
So, within the pharmaceutical industry, who exactly are these customers?
Ten years ago, the picture was clear. The customers were the prescribers and those that could offer some clinical guidance on how and when the drug should be used. These were the industrys bread and butter. However, over time the landscape has shifted.
The core customer base
It is now no secret that the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are confronting significant short- and long-term financial challenges, ranging from generic competition, upcoming patent expirations and an increasingly stringent pricing and reimbursement environment.
These challenges are forcing the industry to rethink everything from R&D to marketing. In addition, the reimbursement environment has also brought about a change in the core customer base, a.k.a. the prescribing physician.
The emergence of a key group of influential payers has meant that across Europe, a fourth hurdlecost effectivenesshas supplemented the established parameters of safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality.
To be effective, the pharmaceutical marketer needs to identify, anticipate and satisfy the requirements of non-clinical stakeholders as well as those of the traditional clinical decision-maker.
Merging marketing and market access
This leads me to my third and most important question: Why isnt marketing at the heart of market access strategy?
The shift in the customer landscape has led to the emergence of third-party suppliersindividual consultants and in-house departments that are so-called market access experts. Often, these are medics/medical writers and health economists who usually develop core value dossiers and the associated economic models to demonstrate cost effectiveness.
While these suppliers seem to be satisfying the needs of their target customernamely, the pharmaceutical biotechnology industryare they really providing and communicating value to the end customer, the payer?
Do pharmaceutical marketers understand, and have the ability to succinctly define, their pivotal role in developing market access strategies to challenge the outputs of these suppliers?
It is imperative that any third-party supplier or department given the responsibility of formulating a market access strategy has a strong grasp of commercial and marketing excellence. It is also fundamental that the in-house marketers play a lead role and work hand-in-hand with the suppliers to identify, anticipate and ultimately satisfy payer requirements. Only then can we begin to talk about profits.