What Keeps Pharma Execs Awake At Night?
11 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 14th, 2010 // 7:16 am
Would it surprise you if 35 percent lie awake fretting over their commercial business models? Or if 24 percent lose sleep over their feeble pipelines? That number actually seems small, don’t you think? Just 16 percent are concerned with generic competition and the impact of looming regulatory reform. Of less concern is funding - just 3 percent worry about where the money comes from and only 2 percent are woken by bad dreams about patient involvement.
These are among the findings of a survey conducted by Cegedim Dendrite, which canvassed 211 pharma execs, most of whom were based in the US, about their goals and challenges. With all the tumult overtaking the pharmaceutical industry, 40 percent cited the biggest change to their business models is an increased focus on strategies for better market access. This much shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that market access is a hot topic in Europe, where countries want to roll back pricing.
The next biggest change, however, is more predictable - the realignment of sales teams, an ongoing preoccupation that was cited by 20 percent of the participants. Interestingly, only 17 percent cited an increased focus on managed care, even though third-party payers stand ready to make life still more difficult for pharma in this era of cost effectiveness. Meanwhile, only 11 percent expect that added emphasis on key opinion leaders will be a big change.
Other nuggets: Respondents were asked to select which two groups they consider to be “primary customers,” and two groups they consider to be “secondary customers.” And so, 78 percent say prescribers are their primary customers, more than twice the 36 percent who listed patients. And just 27 percent believe managed care is their primary customer. with government at 24 percent.
And for those curious to know where social media fits in, well, 53 percent of the execs like to connect on LinkedIn, 39 percent friend on Facebook and just 11 percent tweet on Twitter.
SteveM
Re: Some other nuggets: 78 percent say prescribers are their primary customers, more than twice the 36 percent who listed patients. And just 27 percent believe managed care is their primary customer. with government at 24 percent.
Uh…that tallies up to a tidy 165%.
Glaxxie
See, that’s the problem with observational data…
Salmon
No Glaxxie it’s likely how the question was asked by allowing LISTING of multiple answers.
A much bigger problem is Pharma definitions allowing multiple primary objectives in drug studies to get the labeling they want. Drug companies do it all the time.
I was taught that a study can have only one primary objective. Everything else is a secondary objectives. However statisticians by adding penalties for statistical significance a priori can allow multiple comparisons for multiple primaries.
Salmon
Ed Silverman
Hi SteveM,
Thanks for the note. The answer to your very good question is the following, which I have now added to the post in the form of an update:
Respondents were asked to select which two groups they consider to be “primary customers,” and two groups they consider to be “secondary customers.” Hence, the math is going to exceed 100 percent.
I hope this helps,
Ed
Glaxxie
Primary endpoint:
Whatever best works for us.
pharmavet
Re the sleep thing, one common thread among pharma senior executives that I’ve worked for is that they have boundless energy and belong to that uncommon class of folks who can get by on 3-4 hours of sleep/night. Sometimes they do their best thinking in the middle of the night free from distractions. Most days of the week when I turned on my e-mail at 8AM there would usually be a message from the boss that was time-stamped around 3AM. Nothing like getting chewed out electronically while that first cup of coffee is brewing.
Christopher
No mention of Sen Grassley?
Ed Silverman
Hi Christopher,
Had I commissioned a survey, that question would have been included. Sometimes, the obvious is overlooked.
Cheers
ed
My take
Certainly not conscience, guily or worry about potential prosecution for misdeeds!!!! These never happens.
M. Black
Depending on the issue and the timing, a rainbow of fruit flavors hover over them. And some of them know it.
~ M. Black
Deepak Wadhwa
What is meant by Managed care and market access?