Clear call to action for Australian Pharma

Three levers Australian pharmaceutical industries use to deliver outcomes need to be reworked says delegates at the 6th annual Eyeforpharma Sydney conference last week.

Taking place across two full days leading names in Pharma such as Mylan, Novartis, Bayer, Takeda, GSK, Roche, among many others took part in keynote and panel discussions with a goal to improve future marketing and sales force effectiveness.

The opening quick-fire and answer panel moderated by PharmaDispatch Publisher Paul Cross set the tone of the event in a bid for honest answers to questions Pharma has been asking itself for the last 5 years.

How do we identify new opportunities for growth? How do we strengthen our commercial team with aligned goals for marketing and sales? How do we change the rhetoric to reflect the value Pharma has to our patients and the economy?

Innovations to integrate data, utilize industry specialists, and focus on patient centricity are the levers to master for best impact — so how are the outcomes linking performance to patient centricity going to be measured?

Integrating data

“Coverage and frequency is data and measurement,” said Paul White, National Sales Manager Oncology at Novartis.

The second panel between White and Frances Hall, Head of Sales at LEO Pharma opened the floor to what “future-proofing” growth based on measuring performance would look like in 5–20 years time.

Comments made by Hall resonated with the room that health care professionals want more from their reps — they want an advisor who works with them like a partner, who can align their goals to achieve greater outcomes and measure the change with data.

“Our HCP want someone who is reliable [and] a good source of valuable information,” said Hall.

Bridging the disconnect between reps and their HCPs is made possible by integrating data as a collaborative bridge to share insights and work towards aligned goals.

Utilize industry specialists

“Pharma should be utilizing third party specialists,” said Theo Antonopoulos, Head of Sales and Marketing at MedAdvisor.

Rather than trying to design and implement internally, Antonopoulos highlighted Pharma can choose to move forward partnering with external providers dedicated to “digital disruption”.

Working with specialists who focus on extraction, processing, and integrity of information enables Pharma to focus on strengthening the knowledge and skills of their sales force and become the sort after business advisor.

An Eyeforpharma interview with Peter Stephenson, Asia-Pacific Multichannel Marketing Lead at MSD, in the lead up to Sydney also called for Pharma to look outside the industry for the pockets of innovation needed to drive change.

“We need to reframe digital from a tactical view to something that is all-encompassing,” said Stephenson, “At the moment in the Asia-Pacific, I see a lot of innovation in pockets. This is driven by passionate individuals as an imperative of digital disruption.”

Patient centricity

Patient centricity will be the all-encompassing lever to connect the cogs and shape the future of marketing and sales force effectiveness. It has been Pharma’s buzzword of the decade, and industry bodies are keen to see Pharma re-focus training and education on driving value “beyond the pill”.

Elizabeth de Somer, Director of Policy at Medicines Australia made key points about changing how Pharma operates by communicating meaningful information to stakeholders post market access.

“[HCP and patients] are not only buying a medicine, they’re buying a healthcare outcome,” said de Somer, “You need to provide more than medicine… it’s the compliance and adherence that will make it most effective.”

By using data to consistently educate sales forces on the outcomes for patients they will be able to effectively communicate to HCPs how their medicines will benefit their patients as well as their business.

“We have to do something different to show the value of what [Pharma] have for patients and the economy,” said de Somer.

It will be through these consistent, aligned, and meaningful interactions where sales forces will be ale to build sticky relationships and change the way they are operating and transform Pharma rhetoric for patient centricity.

View photos from the event on SlideShare.

PharmaData were proud to sponsor the 6th annual Eyeforpharma Sydney conference and be one of 200 industry leaders innovating to change the future of Australian pharmaceutical industries.

If you wish to further discuss data analytics opportunities in your pharmacy contact Head of Sales, Jackie Incandela directly on 0447 710 616.

Written by Brianna Charles at PharmaData. Tweet to us on @pharmadata or continue the conversation on LinkedIn.