Modern health care is evolving rapidly. New technologies such as collaborative media and social networks are changing how physicians, consumers, and caregivers obtain, share, and create information. As health care spending continues to rise, an increasing focus on value and real-world outcomes elevates the influence of payers and is spawning the growth of new players such as integrated delivery networks and large practice groups. In addition, declining R&D productivity and falling market valuations place pharmaceutical companies under severe pressure to accelerate top-line growth and improve ROI. Few companies, however, are adapting their commercial models to address this new reality.
Many companies continue to rely on traditional commercial models, emphasizing direct-to-consumer advertising and sales force visits to medical offices. These efforts are not enough to be effective given new industry dynamics. And though companies may recognize the need for strategic change, efforts to date tend to focus on cost-cutting and incremental innovation at a moment calling for bolder innovation efforts and serious organizational changes.
In this webcast, Monitor thought leaders explain why pharmaceutical companies need to think differently about their commercial models—their approaches to customers, offerings, and channels—to make important changes to their strategies and adapt to the new shape of the pharmaceutical industry. They discuss how to develop a new commercial model that engages all relevant stakeholder groups who make up a "system of care,” delivers tailored value both around and beyond the product, and is centered upon a user-centric model that delivers what customers want—where, when, and how they want it.
The New Commercial Model and the System of Care
While pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies direct the majority of their commercial efforts at health care professionals, changes in the industry and health care system require different approaches. In this clip, Monitor's Jeff Wordham and Sheryl L. Jacobson explain that to adapt, companies should focus on the system of care around a patient, including physicians and nurses—as well as patients, family members, and social organizations. Jacobson describes ethnographic research with diabetes patients that show how important caregivers are to patients’ perspectives on their life styles and health care choices. Companies have a great opportunity to serve the needs of people in the patients’ system of care.
The Opportunity for Customer Insights
Pharmaceutical companies have an opportunity to borrow research techniques from other industries to delve deeper into interactions among different players in the health care system to find ways to improve patient care, explains Dr. Wendy Dixon, an advisor to Monitor. In this clip, Dixon discusses how even well-meaning patients and physicians can miss communicating important information to each other. By gaining insights into these behaviors and interactions, companies can develop new ways to provide valuable assistance to health care professionals and patients.
Creating New Value Through Innovation
Pharmaceutical companies traditionally have focused on the clinical value of their products, but in the future they will have to expand that focus “beyond the pill,” notes Monitor’s Jeff Wordham. In this clip, Wordham uses Monitor’s Ten Types of Innovation® framework to discuss recent innovation trends and future opportunities for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to differentiate themselves.
Moving from Recency to Relevancy
In communicating with physicians and other players in the health care system, pharmaceutical and biotech companies need to emphasize the relevance of their messages to their audience rather than the frequency of contacts with physicians and others decision-makers in the health care system, Monitor’s Sheryl L. Jacobson explains in this video clip.
Sheryl Jacobson is a Partner at Monitor, a leader in the firm’s Market2Customer® practice, and co-head of the New York office. Since joining Monitor in 1996, she has worked in a variety of sectors undergoing fundamental transformations, such as life sciences, financial services, media, and nonprofits. Sheryl has dedicated her career to helping organizations grow—in revenue, profit, shareholder value, and social equity— in the face of technological, social, regulatory, and economic turmoil. Sheryl is also the account leader for one of Monitor’s longest-standing client relationships in the life sciences sector. Over the past 10 years, she has helped the client transform itself into a “market-driven science” bio-pharma firm, and is currently working to transform its customer engagement model for health care practitioners, payers, and patients. Sheryl has an AB in history from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Columbia University. She can be reached via e-mail at Sheryl_Jacobson AT Monitor DOT com.
David Hole is an Associate Partner with Monitor’s Leadership and Organization practice. He has more than 15 years of consulting experience in organization design and economics, large-scale transformation, talent, and leadership strategy. David currently leads Life Science and Globalizing Work offerings for the practice and serves as the lead for support in China and other Asian markets. In addition to his client work, he has written and presented on the issues of global talent and leadership, as well as globalizing work in life sciences. His most recent activities include publishing on global generational talent differentiation (which included field research in China and India) and participating in an industry symposium in Shanghai examining the future of biopharma R&D in China. He can be reached via e-mail at David_Hole AT Monitor DOT com.
Jeff Wordham is a Partner at Monitor and a leader of the firm’s Innovation practice. In this role, he focuses on helping companies identify and exploit new sources of profitable growth through innovation, including developing and commercializing new business models and concepts. He has led innovation efforts in a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotech, vaccines, and medical devices, as well as consumer products, telecommunications, and industrial products. Jeff received his bachelor’s degree in commerce from Queen’s University in Canada, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is based in New York and can be reached via e-mail at Jeff_Wordham AT Monitor DOT com.
Dr. Wendy Dixon is a Senior Advisor to Monitor. She has 32 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, with both a technical background in drug development and regulatory affairs as well as a commercial background in building organizations and launching pharmaceutical products. She has served as the Chief Marketing Officer and President of Global Marketing for Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Merck. She is currently on the Board of Directors for five pharmaceutical and biotech firms, and is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors. She can be reached via e-mail at DixonWendy1 AT gmail DOT com.