Sales Management: The New BioPharma Representative
April 1st 2007The pharmaceutical industry is abuzz with discussion: What will "tomorrow's" sales force look like? How will the job profile and competencies for sales reps change to better serve customers? How do we recruit and hire this new breed of sales reps? Steve DeMorro, president of Publicis Healthcare Recruiting, identified several key characteristics of the new biopharma representative, and how he believes these will become a standard part of the job profile for recruiting-and developing-sales reps in the future.
Global Report: If It Ain't Broke
April 1st 2007If the uk's office of fair trading (OFT) is to be believed, Brits are overpaying for their medicines to the tune of ?500 million a year. That's the conclusion the OFT came to in its long-awaited report on the Pharmaceutical Pricing Regulation Scheme (PPRS), the arcane method by which drug prices are set in the United Kingdom.
Direct to Consumer: The Not-So-Cold Call
April 1st 2007Phone-based marketing might not offer the wow factor of its newer Web- and text-based cousins; however, proposing that a computer handle calls offers an innovative twist. But this concept begs the question: Who wants to speak with a computer about his health?
Get a Grip on the Supply Chain
April 1st 2007The Sarbanes-Oxley Act-or SOX, as it is dubbed (not always so affectionately)-requires companies to provide greater control and quality assurance across a vast spectrum of business processes. In practice, SOX plays out differently industry by industry and even company by company. But for pharma, one of the most pressing consequences is the need to improve the accuracy of revenue recognition.
Washington Report: Medicaid Sets the Pace for Pharma Pricing
April 1st 2007All the hoopla about Medicare drug prices is overshadowing the real action in pharmaceutical pricing: a less-noticed exercise that aims to reduce reimbursement for medicines purchased by state Medicaid programs. Retail pharmacists say the proposed changes will put them out of business, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) fear an end to discount negotiations.