Pharmaceutical Executive-09-01-2005

If pharmaceutical companies hope to improve their marketing efficiency, they have to change how they approach their customers. For years, manufacturers have been practicing the "more is better" direct-selling approach to physicians. But research now shows what common sense has long suggested: More has become too much. Education has given way to inundation, clamoring for face time with physicians has led to diminishing sales returns, and relationships with major pharma stakeholders have broken down. Physicians, regulators, consumers, and legislators have come to mistrust manufacturers' motives and integrity. As pharma asks how its marketing strategies have missed the mark, it may discover answers in reinventing something it once relied upon: strong relationships with customers.

FDA could lose 251 employees under the administration's proposed 2006 budget. The agency will try to do more with less through risk-management practices, but important tasks will fall by the wayside.

Gen Xers are attractive to many managers because they typically have a strong work ethic. Although they are self-reliant, they still desire to be taken seriously and want to be valued by their companies.

When rebate strategies are coupled with sales force and DTC spending, it results in "margin-negative" business-that is, sales that bring in less than the marginal cost of selling, promoting, and manufacturing the drug.

If the legislation passes, companies will be rewarded with a six-month extension of market exclusivity if they conduct pediatric trials. And under the proposal, companies that fail to comply can be penalized.

Digital forms of image transmission, archiving, and education with the virtual microscope will revolutionize pathology.

The issue of pedigree requirements is emerging at the state level-and figuring out to what extent that will push back to the manufacturers.

If pharmaceutical companies hope to improve their marketing efficiency, they have to change how they approach their customers. For years, manufacturers have been practicing the "more is better" direct-selling approach to physicians. But research now shows what common sense has long suggested: More has become too much. Education has given way to inundation, clamoring for face time with physicians has led to diminishing sales returns, and relationships with major pharma stakeholders have broken down. Physicians, regulators, consumers, and legislators have come to mistrust manufacturers' motives and integrity. As pharma asks how its marketing strategies have missed the mark, it may discover answers in reinventing something it once relied upon: strong relationships with customers.

Instead of leaving the doctor's office well informed, the patient often leaves without enough comprehensible information to comply with the prescribed treatment.

Class actions threaten industries that deal with the public. If European lawmakers remove the restriction on class-action suits, consumers will be free to file cases. Pharma companies should take heed.

My doctor and I have two different visions of an avian influenza pandemic. She's picturing regular flu season, but worse. I'm imagining 1918. Does the conflict sound familiar?