Cegedim Dendrite finds industry focused on changing business model

June 18, 2010 – 8:46 am by Steven Niles

The top issue vexing pharmaceutical executives is the changing commercial business model, according to “2010 Pharma Insights,” a new report from Cegedim Dendrite. The pharma CRM and data solutions company conducted an online survey of 211 pharmaceutical executives in North and South America. Thirty-five percent of surveyed executives cited the changing commercial business model as the issue of most concern to them.

Breaking down what the changing commercial business model entails, 40% of respondents identified the increased focus in market access strategies as the biggest change to the business model. Other factors cited as the biggest change to the commercial business model include primary sales force realignment (20%), increased focus on managed care (17%), increased focus on key opinion leaders (11%), and increased use of e-detailing channels (6%).

Beyond the changing commercial model, the Cegedim Dendrite survey found pharma execs anxious about pipeline growth (24%), the impact of regulatory reform (16%), generic competition (16%), cost, capital, and funding issues (3%), and patient involvement (2%).

Survey respondents stated that new product innovation and profitability growth are the most important business objectives in 2010. New product innovation and successful launch was cited by 67% of respondents as the top objective for 2010 and 51% cited profitability growth.

Not surprisingly, most survey respondents view prescribers and patients as their most important primary and secondary customer groups. What may be somewhat surprising, however, is a full 36% of respondents ranked patients as the primary customer over prescribers. Meanwhile, 27% cited managed care organizations as the primary customer and 24% cited government. Cegedim Dendrite analysts anticipate seeing the balance continue to tip away from prescribers as a primary customer toward these other groups.

The survey also sought pharma executives’ opinions on social media. Respondents are aware of and use social media, but it generally does not receive a large appropriation of their marketing budgets. Almost all (97%) of respondents indicate that they use at least one social media site on a daily basis, though whether that is for personal and/or professional use is unclear. The majority (51%) invest less than 5% of their sales and marketing budget in social media channels.

Social media is primarily used for external applications such as marketing and PR but is also used to a lesser extent for internal communications and human resources. Fifty-nine percent of respondents list “marketing” as the top way their company is using social media.

Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing only seem relevant to a relatively small number of respondents. Only 7% cite the technology as “very important”, and 15% cite it as “important.” Many respondents do not appear to understand the topic, with 45% responding “Don’t know” to the question, “How important is SaaS or cloud computing in your sales and marketing initiatives?”

China was cited as the most strategically important BRIC country. Thirty percent of respondents chose China but 27% did not know which country was most strategically important for their company.

In reviewing the results of their survey, Cegedim Dendrite analysts came to the conclusion that the next six months of 2010 will most likely show pharmaceutical companies remaining focused on changing business models and product innovations. And as market growth in China and other BRIC countries has more of an impact on the industry, Cegedim Dendrite analysts expect to see pharmaceutical companies making changes to become more global-minded.

Tags: business, Cegedim Dendrite, healthcare reform, market research, Sales force effectiveness, Social media