Pawan Chaudhary, CMD, Venus Remedies, gives an overview on the evolution of pharma marketing and the need to ‘think out of the box’ to propel growth in the industry
Rising competition, stringent laws, new drug guidelines, changing FDI policy, compulsory licensing, price control and so many other factors have made most Indian pharmaceutical companies think ‘out of the box’ marketing strategies to survive in the race of the fittest.
The pharma industry in India and around the globe is one of the fastest growing industries, accounting for a total revenue of $3 trillion. The revenue of the Indian pharma industry stood at $12 billion in 2013. The Indian pharma industry is projected to be among the top three global markets in terms of incremental growth by 2020. Globally, the pharma sector in India ranks third in terms of volume and 14th in terms of value. It is primarily driven by exports in regulated and emerging markets. The Indian pharma market is highly attractive despite fragmentation and crowding. The country has more than 20,000 pharma firms, 60,000 distributors and a significantly larger retailer base.
Key changes in the market
The rapidly changing environment due to strict drug guidelines and policies have made pharma companies around the world adopt unconventional ideas of marketing to reach to the top. The rising competition where only the fittest can survive requires proper positioning to establish a product and make it grow. In the pharma industry, it is all about positioning the product properly. This is the reason why marketing and promotion hold immense significance in the pharma industry.
Since the introduction of the Patent Act, 2005 in India, the approach of pharma companies has changed a lot with a majority of the companies opting for transition (by switching over from generics to branded generics) for survival. Medical representatives and the field force now play an important role in helping pharma companies know the details of doctors’ prescription slips. Networking has always been the key to success in reaching out to chemists, pharmacists, distributors and doctors. In today’s competitive world when medical representatives from various companies do not get much time from doctors for appointment to explain them the details of a particular product, it becomes imperative for every pharma company to come up with an innovative marketing model to ensure growth.
Pharma marketing and promotions have become a necessity in today’s date. Ideally, every pharma company spends eight-10 per cent of its total sales in marketing activities to properly promote and position its brands in the market. For an R&D-driven company like Venus, it becomes a bit more difficult as we do not have the option of advertisement. Our products are highly specialised and used in healthcare units/ICUs, so companies like ours depend on the following tools to market their products:
Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs): Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) have always been considered as the ‘thought leaders’ who play an important role in the advisory committee of pharma companies. As KOLs are capable of influencing other clinicians through their professional status and updated scientific knowledge, they also play a vital role in the drug development stage and the pre and post launch phase by providing valuable suggestions and merging the gap between clinical needs and research. Pharma industries have been and will be relying heavily on KOLs in future too. Be it developing a new research product, targeting a unique segment of clinicians for drug promotion through symposiums and conferences, taking first-hand clinical inputs to upgrade the scientific information of the drug or conducting training and education programnes, KOLs have a crucial role to play. They also help in publication of clinical data, thereby apprising the medical community about the scientific worth of the drug.
Webinars: It is a latest means of communication where pharma companies invite several doctors to participate in online/live interactions to introduce and discuss a product. It is one of the most powerful modes of communication among the medical fraternity, which provides a platform to industry experts to share their views about the subject.
Expositions: Participating in expos like Microcon is another way of positioning your product and educating the healthcare and pharma fraternity about your product kit. For instance, we have been participating in Microcons for the past two years. It serves as a good platform for companies like us to introduce their research products to microbiologists and speciality doctors whose opinion and recommendation about a particular drug decides its acceptance and promotion in speciality hospitals.
Conferences/ seminars: Another useful marketing technique is participation in seminars and conferences where you can introduce your products, ideas and research innovations and convey your unmet needs and opinions. We, at Venus, have been part of many conferences and programmes where we have introduced our research products and got appreciation for them. The DST-Lockheed Martin India Innovation Programme is one of the most prestigious platforms we used to present our three research products and received appreciation for them in the form of awards.
Social media: Social media is the latest rage these days. It is hard to ignore it. With a single click, you get to introduce your products to the masses and educate all stakeholders about it, including pharmacists, stockists, investors, distributors, doctors and the general public. It is the best way to penetrate into various regions around the globe and promote a brand.
Continuing Medical Education (CME) programmes: It is a technique used by pharma companies to influence the prescriptions of physicians. CMEs are utilised by pharmaceutical companies as a platform to introduce their innovations and educate doctors about how their discoveries will help patients.
These are some of the techniques which almost every research-driven pharma company around the world is practising to excel in the business.
Challenges ahead
Despite the market growth, the industry is still facing a number of challenges, which includes funding for new technologies/ drug development, an increase in co-morbidities associated with chronic diseases and human factors such as the administration of drug delivery in home and regulatory interventions. The cost of research and developing new products is becoming challenge day-by-day due to increased input costs and regulatory hurdles. It takes a time of eight to 10 years and an average investment of $800-1,000 million to successfully develop a new chemical entity. Even after the product launch in the market, the regulatory requirements are comprehensive in terms of pharmacovigilance and reporting.
The drug pricing policy poses another big challenge. The Government of India has adopted the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPA) to strike a balance between the pharma industry’s growth and availability of reasonably priced medicines for patients, particularly the poor. In the NPPA list, the number of essential medicines that come under direct price control of the government has been increased from 74 to 348 to cap their prices based on the average price of these medicines in that particular therapeutic segment.
In a nutshell, the confluence of research education and pharma marketing is leading to the emergence of a new marketing model that promotes the idea of smaller, more agile and smarter marketing teams/field staff. The time of incremental innovation or branded generics has long gone. In today’s date, the growth and sustenance of a pharma company depends solely on the revolutionary package of the product in terms of the value it offers to patients without burdening their pockets, and effective results in a shorter time span.