Leveraging launch experience in pharma's emerging markets
With the right sales planning and forecasting processes, companies can unlock value in the fast-expanding pharmerging universe, argues Stephanie Hall, Uptake Strategies managing director
The pharmerging markets may be industrys antidote to flattening growth in the US and Europe but that does not make them a sure thing.
Externally, the pharmerging marketsBrazil, Russia, India, and China as well as fast followers like Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Vietnam, and South Africapresent an array of challenges to companies wanting to build on first-wave product launches, according to Optimising Launch Performance, a white paper from Uptake Strategies.
Marketing and resourcing must take account of local healthcare policies and infrastructure, tendering and distribution systems, regulatory and reimbursement criteria, customer needs and patient affordability.
There are also significant internal challenges to address if second-wave launches are to reap their full potential.
The pace of development means new products often enter these markets in rapid succession, with weeks and months, not years to prepare for launch, observes the paper.
Human and financial resources may be spread thinly across several brands, while marketing expertise and experience can vary markedly both within and between local companies.
While Big Pharma has a presence in these markets, internally they may be treated as an afterthought, says Uptake Strategies managing director, Stephanie Hall.
Emerging markets have traditionally generated only 10-15% of revenues.
Product launches have followed suitNorth America and Europe first, then the rest of the world, anything from six months to two years behind. (For more on forecasting for emerging markets, see Forecasting: "No such thing as 'rest of the world' anymore".)
Launch learnings and expertise
Products entering pharmerging territories at least have some market experience under their belts.
Yet, too often, Uptake Strategies contends, the opportunity to capture that experience, share it, and apply it to second-wave launches is missed.
If you package it all together, Hall says, get it out to them, explain it, motivate them, give them the insights and expertise from lots of different countries, then boil it down to the top five or 10 things you need to do to make this successful the impact on business performance is enormous.
These launch learnings and expertise (LLE) packages need to go much further, though, than anecdotes, highlights or ad hoc internal newsletters, the white paper stresses.
They should provide real direction, such as analysis of launch performance across a variety of key indicators; examples of tactical programs that have worked before, during and after launch; advice on adjusting the marketing mix to particular access challenges; or guidance on common pitfalls, prescriber obstacles, and how to handle the competition.
Nor are they cookie-cutter solutions, Hall notes.
They must be sensitive to the local environment, access challenges, and patient pathways.
Underlying all that, though, should be the right sort of above-country work, looking at all the performance data and thinking, How do I give them the right tools and information in a non-dictatorial way? Hall says: Heres some stuff thats worked well. Now, lets partner with you to understand how to make this a success on your terms.
Organizational change
Emerging markets also call for organizational changehow the various regions are broken down, who works with whom, and howas well as a shift in mindset, Hall stresses.
There may be cultural barriers, such as reluctance to challenge, in countries like Japan.
Another essential tool is a comprehensive and easy-to-use launch roadmap that ensures all elements of a successful launch are addressed and helps to establish robust key performance indicators.
This is an ideal way to support emerging market launches with limited resources within tight timelines, the white paper says.
Defining and measuring strategic and operational readiness for launch is also paramount.
As Hall observes, local companies recruiting, training, and growing at speed may not have the same level of infrastructure, formal organization, skills, or sophistication as their first-wave counterparts.
What I do see is a lot of last-minute launches, she comments.
Weve got three months to introduce this and all weve done is e-mail the pricing authorities with our health economic data and held one advisory board. Often, the drive and the focus is on the existing portfolio.
Forecasting with assumptions
A typical weak point, Hall suggests, is failure to assess correctly the size and shape of the opportunity in emerging markets, to create an appropriate ambition and forecast with assumptions.
This is not about just drawing a line but working through the flow of patients, disease prevalence, segmentation, and comparable products.
Then there are classical market-access failings, such as lack of early planning and resourcing or insufficient clarity over implementation
Its not just doing a nice plan and a few chats with some specialists in the area, Hall explains, but saying, Were going to hold a meeting here. Were going to get to the national congress here. Our campaigns are going to be developed by X. Well have the market research completed by December.
In the end, its actually about getting the work done, Hall adds.
And that work has to continue after launch: Keeping an eye on early indicators, whether doctors are showing interest and intent, whether the product is fully differentiated from the competition.
Yet with the right investment in time, planning, and processes to transfer learnings from first- to second-wave markets, Hall insists, companies can unlock a great deal of value in the fast-expanding pharmerging universe.
For more on pharmerging markets, see Getting into the Indian pharma market, The Middle East: A pharma market in the making, Reassessing Russia's pharma market; Breaking into the Brazilian pharma market; Cracking the Chinese pharma market; and How to get ahead in 'pharmerging' markets.
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