The healthcare environment continually finds new ways to challenge organisations that work in this space.  With government changing the funding/reimbursement rules on what seems to be a continual basis, certainty of planning seems a thing of the past.  Pivotal has been formed to help companies deal with these challenges.

We’ve recently seen:

  • F1 5% statutory price reduction
  • Price disclosure for F2 medicines including combination products for the first time and excluding originator brands
  • ‘a’-flagging of biosimilars and the GMBA securing a 5-year strategic agreement
  • Moves to state based hospital tenders and the increased importance of genuine key account management in the hospital sector
  • Consumer Directed Care in the aged care sector

No longer is it a straightforward process to register a new product and then market it solely to doctors. Now, just to get registration it is important to consider patient advocacy groups and the opinions of individual patients to help establish need.  To help smooth the process through the PBAC, market research with relevant prescribers can establish that an appropriate comparator drug has been used in the PBAC submission. And then marketing has to consider where the product sits within the context of the patient’s life – what is the patient journey for that disease, who are the relevant stakeholders beyond the prescriber, how can we go beyond just selling the pill?

The Pharma Industry has traditionally focused on the science behand its medications, and the clinical benefits these bring to patients.  Now a more holistic approach is being adopted that looks beyond the clinical benefits to the wider impact on lifestyle and the community.  It is building on the insights of George W Merck, who said:

“We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been”.

To talk about the challenges of marketing healthcare products or services in today’s environment, contact Pivotal:

p: 0405 504 698
e: info@pivotalinsights.com.au