How pharma companies can lay the groundwork for lasting commercial success in a post-COVID-19 world.
Finding, accessing, and paying for healthcare in America requires so much work that half of consumers surveyed by The Harris Poll have avoided seeking care. More than two-thirds of consumers said every step of the healthcare process is a chore, most said they don’t know how much a treatment or visit costs until months later, and nearly all said they want shopping for healthcare to be as easy as shopping for other common services – including making it a fully connected digital experience.
“Put the patient first.” It’s every pharma marketer’s favorite buzz-phrase in 2020. And why not? Patients are our real customers; they use and (hopefully) benefit from our products, and their wants and needs drive the success or failure of everything we do.
With 270 million Americans currently under a “stay at home” directive, only activities deemed “essential” are happening in person. In healthcare, which relies significantly on personal connections – between patients and HCPs, HCPs and pharma reps, and even marketers and their teams – there have been dramatic shifts in the way we all work and operate over the last couple of weeks.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. physicians (73 percent) reported not being able to test patients quickly and easily for coronavirus, despite 50 percent reporting that they had treated at least one patient with possible COVID-19 symptoms, according to a nationwide survey of more than 2,600 physicians on the Doximity network.
Relative to doctors who were shown rational ads that were generalized, the third annual Wunderman Thompson Health Inertia Study found that 34 percent more doctors were likely to take action after seeing emotional ads that addressed them on a personal level.
Current exorbitant healthcare costs and inadequate insurance leave many patients without essential care that could improve or save their lives. However, a single-payer market is not necessarily a panacea.
U.S. physician research conducted by Decision Resources Group has shown the number of “No-see” physicians – those that do not see pharma reps – creep up for a number of years. During 2019 there was a notable jump, with 2 in 5 physicians (39 percent) reporting having had no contact with pharma reps – up from 24 percent in 2018.
Health benefit cost will top $13,000 per employee during 2019, according to the annual Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2019.
Adoption of a risk-based monitoring (RBM) approach can help enhance the safety, quality, and efficiency of clinical studies while simultaneously supporting compliance.
