With increasing pressures on healthcare systems, the rise in power of different stakeholders such as payers, patients and policy makers, and the launch of highly specialised/rare treatments, such as personalised medicines, the traditional go-to-market models for pharmaceutical products are no longer fully fit for purpose. Most within the industry are aware of this. Yet the uptake of new strategies has, todate, been modest. So why is this?
In a volatile environment most biopharma companies, perhaps understandably, prefer to play it safe. They gravitate towards those strategies with which they are historically more experienced, such as employing key account managers with large institutional customers. However, more recently, biopharma companies have started to embark on game-changing strategies such as:
– Offering unique business/healthcare services, e.g. individualised patient dosing supported by holistic solutions including required devices
– Leveraging product portfolio synergies, e.g. TA/franchise competition across products, both for innovative brands and/or mature/established products
– Realigning responsibilities to a supranational level, e.g. dedicated pan-European business units, particularly in rare diseases, oncology and other specialty care areas
After pulling any game-changing levers other commercial levers will need to be re-assessed and possibly adjusted. For those companies who embrace a ‘white sheet’ approach to their go-to-market model, there are many potential advantages. In the long-run, they will optimise stakeholder engagement, sustain superior competitiveness and improve the bottom-line, reported to be the three main go-to-market objectives.
It is time for the biopharmaceutical industry to close the gap and recoup the benefits, as those players who have established novel industry standards have already done, thereby raising stakeholders’ expectations to a new high-ground.
