There was a phase when the industry feared that digital would eventually replace the medical sales representative but it appears that digital engagements work best when facilitated by an affable and knowledgeable person, who can personalize the information, and the conversation, to the doctor. In pharma, there’s no substituting face-to-face dialogue it seems. And why should it?
“Rather than digital replacing a person in pharma, the need of the hour is digitalizing the approach of person. The person and the technology are HERE TO STAY”, says Archis Joshi, Commercial Head at Dr. Reddy’s.
The sales role is getting tougher. Medical information, at one point pharma’s greatest value, is today much more freely available than it used to be. In the Indian market which is dominated by generic medicines lacking differentiation, simply informing doctors about the product, isn’t a viable prospect any more when it comes to piquing their interest.
“Why are brands that have been around for some time still unable to cross the marketing funnel and are still stuck at either the ‘awareness’ or the ‘interest’ stages, and unable to move towards the ‘purchase’ or ‘recommendation’ stages?” wonders Mehul Shukla, Director, Marketing Excellence at Cipla.
A diverse, summer issue with articles on topics ranging from content marketing to the role of experience in a VUCA world. Also, the latest book for Medical Reps reviewed by Prof. Vivek Hattangadi
Lower prices, discounts, convenience of ordering and home delivery are some of the benefits for consumers with e-pharmacies. The anonymity of the internet encourages patients to seek information about medicines that they would otherwise avoid. Mental health is one area where the consumers wish to maintain confidentiality and opt for online consultation and medication.
DigiStorm 2018 was held on 11 September at the Lalit Ashok in Bangalore. The event was headlined by Prabir Jha – President & Global Chief People Officer, Cipla. Deep Bhandari – Editorial Board Member, MedicinMan, gives us the highlights of the post-lunch session.
COVID-19 has accelerated the shift in how pharma was engaging with HCPs, professional organisations and even patients in India from a sales to more of a scientific, unbiased and balanced marketing communications. As one of the business leader from a prominent MNC said, “For the first time we are seeing a certain shift in HCP’s preference for scientific communication for innovators companies. MSLs and scientific operation teams will be playing a key role in the near future.”
The new sparkling DIME (Digi MarketEr) are the ones who embrace digital transformation with open arms and voraciously feed on data analytics to satisfy their performance outcomes with an informed business decision. The benefit of being DIME is that it propels data management out of the hands of individual stakeholders, and puts data sets with insights on to center glass table (Transparent workplace) for informed decision making.
Addressing the media at a roundtable this morning, Vani Manja, Managing Director, Boehringer Ingelheim India said, “Boehringer Ingelheim India aspires to be amongst the top five multinational pharmaceutical companies in India over the next few years. We have been enabling access to our innovator products to patients across India and the neighbouring markets in the diabetes, cardiovascular, stroke and respiratory diseases segments. Our plan in these therapy areas is to build sustainable partnerships to ensure an ecosystem of access and care for patients. We have initiated action in that direction.”