Overcoming Barriers in Europe's Healthcare Market

A resurgent disease-management sector and an emphasis on evidence-based medicine will compel pharmaceutical companies to market products as constituents of packages of care and to re-direct their sales efforts towards planners rather than doctors, according to a new analysis from international market consultants Frost & Sullivan (London, UK).

Most pharmaceutical companies are positioned at the "single-product-type” level and are limited to basic healthcare technology assessment programs to prove product efficacy. Some companies are attempting to address evidence-based healthcare trends by evaluating their products against rival offerings and placebos. This practice would become mandatory if the European Union were to include "added therapeutic value” as a criterion for market approval.

In addition, current drug portfolios are proving inadequate to sustain growth, product pipelines are drying up, and fewer drugs are gaining regulatory approval. Marketing over-spending has often exceeded product sales. One solution is to replace standard blockbuster drugs with targeted pharmaceuticals or tailored drugs. The concept of targeted treatment for specific diseases has led to new development techniques that reduce the gap between target identification and marketing, reducing R&D cost and improving shareholder profits. However, most companies selling to the primary care sector have persisted with large sales forces that call on doctors, even though the returns on this practice have dropped.

"Rather than investing in solutions-based communications planning, companies appear to seek comfort in convention, using high-cost, low-risk strategies but without achieving any significant effect in the marketplace,” commented Gordon Blackwell, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.




Related Links:
Frost & Sullivan