The commercial pharma landscape is facing new obstacles that are making old sales and marketing strategies ineffective. The surge in new launches, competition for smaller patient populations, and growth in development of novel therapies, means launches are expected to make less money, and commercial teams have less time to establish these products in the marketplace.
The pandemic didn’t cause all of these challenges, but it did make them worse. Launches in the last two years show a 25% gap in monthly sales after the first six months compared to pre-pandemic launches,i and that gap is expected to continue through 2023. Commercial teams also face growing demand for omnichannel engagement, as healthcare professionals indicate a preference for digital interactions over face-to-face visits.
To adapt, commercial teams need to fully understand market and competitive dynamics so they can quantify available market share, map the customer journey, and adapt their outreach messages and methods to address current and future patient needs.
That level of precision cannot be achieved using old launch playbooks and generic sales techniques. It requires a personalized, data-driven approach that can only be accomplished when sales and marketing teams have access to detailed information about the patient journey, HCP preferences, and when patients are likely to seek treatments.
Data at your fingertips
All of this information is available through four modular solutions from IQVIA that leverage artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and predictive analytics to deliver real-time information about the treatment journey that can inform every decision commercial teams make. These solutions can be used individually, or as an interconnected suite of solutions that guide every step in the commercial process.
- Patient Population and Journey: The Patient Journey software uses artificial intelligence to characterize patient journeys in the some of the largest patient and HCP databases available in the world. Pharma companies can use the platform to define the patient journey, then apply those lessons to the broader population to predict which patients are likely to be diagnosed, begin treatment, or switch to new therapies. The intuitive user interface provides real-time analysis covering over 60 unique dimensions of the patient journey. It helps commercial teams forecast the size and geography of the patient population for more accurate planning and outreach.
- Smart Targeting: Once commercial teams have identified anonymized patients who will benefit from a treatment, Smart Targeting can be used to develop fast, comprehensive, and up-to-date HCP profiles, across franchises. It provides commercial teams with a dashboard of high value customers based on multiple dimensions, including predicted patient opportunity. This is a vital step in the commercial process because it allows sales teams to identify who is most likely to prescribe their drug, and when, to maximize the impact of every outreach. As sales forces shrink and become more specialized, this level of precision will be essential to meeting their sales goals.
- HCP Alerts*: When US commercial teams are focused on new targeted therapies with tightly defined patient populations, they need their brands to be in front of the right physician with the right message at just the right time. HCP Alerts makes that possible. It enables users to identify patient opportunities in real time, with great accuracy, by constantly analyzing a database that covers 270 million US patients, 90% of retail prescriptions, and 70% of HCPs. The system constantly monitors the HCP dashboard and sends automated alerts to sales and marketing teams when a new HCP is identified, or someone on the list is on the verge of diagnosing or treating a patient of interest. Sales reps can proactively reach-out to physicians before a medical event or decision occurs, ensuring they deliver relevant messages when they will have the greatest impact. Sales teams also use the data to prioritize and customize their outreach, which can enhance competitiveness, increase brand performance, and improve patient outcomes.
- Next Best: IQVIA’s Next Best platform uses real-time data to suggest the Next Best action that a rep can take to make the biggest impact on sales performance. It doesn’t just offer generic advice, such as who to call next. The platform uses AI to monitor granular details about every HCP and their patient populations, including things like where they went to school, what papers they have written, their past treatment decisions for patients of interest, and what kinds of marketing content they are likely to engage with. These insights enable sales teams to prioritize their activities, and to provide a unified, personalized omnichannel experience for every customer to maximize brand impact.
How to choose
Each of these solutions adds value at points in the commercial cycle. But the most innovative companies are figuring out how to weave two or more of these tools together to support their commercial teams and drive more value from their outreach efforts.
Source: https://www.iqvia.com/blogs/2022/09/leverage-scalable-advanced-analytics-on-real-world-data