India pharma tech’s next big opportunity lies in sales and marketing stack: Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm released its report focused on the sales and marketing stack of Indian pharma companies, analysing India’s burgeoning pharma market and the role of technology in further amplifying this growth. As per the report, the $50 billion Indian pharma market is expected to grow at ~8 per cent CAGR for the next five years and is poised for transformation. Bessemer firmly believes that technology led engagement solutions, will be a pivotal driving force in how Indian pharma companies market and position themselves.

The convergence of the increasing digital adoption among doctors, evolving regulatory forces, the imperative for seamless omni-channel engagement, has created a pressing need for pharma companies to change their approach to sales and marketing. The report highlights how India pharma companies are looking for innovative omni-channel marketing solutions to engage with doctors. Simultaneously, there has been a notable shift in doctors’ adoption of technology, especially in the post-COVID landscape. They are increasingly open to digital interactions with pharmaceutical companies, marking a significant transformation in the way these crucial stakeholders engage in the industry.

Anurag Begwani, Investor at Bessemer Venture Partners says, “Our conversations with pharma company CEOs and CMOs have provided valuable insights into their sales and marketing objectives. These high priority initiatives, ranked in order of importance and potential annual expenditures, encompass enhancing sales force efficiency, implementing personalised omni-channel marketing, evaluating the efficacy of digital investments, gaining access to competitive intelligence, and facilitating direct marketing to doctors through HCP networking sites and EMR platforms. Entrepreneurs aligned to these goals of modern pharma marketers are poised to benefit immensely.”

For innovative sales and marketing solutions for pharma companies, the report recommends the need to have competitive insights, analytics, omnichannel marketing and content management mechanisms to ensure an outcome based approach. This is followed by pharmacovigilance, which includes strict drug safety reports, checks on counterfeits and prevention of adverse events. As we delve further into the report, it also highlights opportunity for a pharma-focused end-to-end SaaS platform to offer support for innovative sales and marketing, pharmacovigilance and R&D. Similarly, it also highlights how successful HCP-networking sites will be able to monetise data insights through pharma companies and other providers.