Teams and effective practices that drive corporate growth. “Successful new product plan ning efforts realize that analytical teamstaffing efforts are essential to today’s blockbuster products,” says Paul Meade, VP at Best Prac tices. “Teams that have well rounded members who can bring a combination of experience and varied knowledge to the planning pro cess will pull ahead to introduce profitable results.” Examples of benchmarked hiring techniques and teambuilding exercises include a company that established a 15person global franchise team for each of its three therapeutic areas. The company hired the team based on each individual’s expertise in each therapeutic area to provide commercial input for new drug develop ment. Another company hired and created a market ing team consisting of individuals who could bring specific process experience to the table.This allowed the team to back their assumptions with strong data, building internal credibility. A separate study from Best Practices found that top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can stay ahead of the compe tition by focusing on recruiting, develop ing, and managing influential physicians to become strong disease and brand advocates. The study — Speaker Training and Development: Driv ing Pharmaceutical Brand Growth — found that forward looking companies structure training sessions and build organizational capa bilities to systemati cally manage speak ers as valuable assets. The leading practices, managerial insights, and benchmark metrics revealed in the study are drawn fromexclusive interviews with 12 of the world’s most respected pharmaceutical companies. Key practices discovered by the study include: . Leading companies design and implement for mal speaker training programs to ensure consisten cy in speaker quality and message delivery. . Benchmark partners report numerous benefits associated with creating a center of expertise to take responsibility for speaker training and management. The creation of a center of expertise reinforces the longterm mindset necessary for process improve ment and organizational capability building. PHARMA TRAX SALES, MARKETING, AND R&D TRENDS AFFECTING THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY ACNielsen Study TRACKS CONSUMER RX and OTC USE A comprehensive research service that measures consumer purchases and use of prescription and overthecounter medicines has been launched by ACNielsen U.S. Homescan RX/OTC Consumer Panel uses ACNielsen’s nationally representative Homescan consumer panel to track ailments,the remedies peo ple purchase,and the remedies they actually use. “While directtoconsumer advertising is a rela tively newpractice for the pharmaceutical industry, it is clear that drug manufacturers are investing heavi ly in this marketing effort,”says Nick Sorvillo,seniorVP of ACNielsen Homescan Consumer Panel Services. “Our study clearly shows those efforts are paying off in greater brand awareness among consumers.” Mr. Sorvillo says the initial findings, based on the responses of more than 90,000 individuals, already have identified numerous opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry. “Fully onefifth of people who acknowledge having a cholesterol prob lem are not treating the problem at all,” he says.“Clearly, this is one area where the indus try could focus on increasing remedy use.” TheHomescanRX/OTC Consumer Panel research service tracks the same house holds over time, which Mr. Sorvillo says positions the service not only to identify opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry, but also to evaluate consumer acceptance of new products and marketing campaigns rolled out in response to those oppor tunities. ROBUST RECRUITING TACTICS Drive Performance Pharmaceutical companies that successfully recruit and hire a staff with extensive scientific and business knowledge reap exponential economic rewards, according to a Best Practices study. The study — Driving Growth through New Prod uct Planning and Strategic Alliances — reveals how the most successful pharmaceutical andbiotechnol ogy companies examine candidates’medical knowl edge, management skills, networking ability, and communication skills before promoting them to top positions.This process was found to build dominant MEASURING CONSUMER PRESCRIPTION ANDOTC PURCHASES Allergies 12% 15% 37% 32% 16% Cough/Cold/Flu 12 11 10 65 14 Heartburn/Ulcer 8 15 28 50 7 High Blood Pressure 8 4 92 0.5 4 Muscular/Joint Pain 7 14 21 49 17 Cholesterol 6 4 73 3 20 Acne 4 7 17 46 30 Arthritis Osteo 4 22 36 31 11 Infections 4 19 57 12 11 Asthma 3 4 84 3 9 Source:ACNielsen U.S.Homescan RX/OTC Consumer Panel Notes: * Percentage of respondents who experienced ailment in past six months. Survey fielded in February and March 2002. % Respondents % Treated with % Treated with % Treated No Ailment suffering from* RX and OTC RX only with OTC only treatment THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PHARMAAND BIOTECH COMPANIES EXAMINE CANDIDATES’ MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE, MANAGEMENT SKILLS,NETWORKING ABILITY,AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS BEFORE PROMOTING THEMTOTOP POSITIONS. PHARMA trax 59 PharmaVOICE S e p t e mb e r 2 0 02 service from seventh in fall 2001.Wyeth had the third highest number of contacts to medical directors in spring 2002. Panelists noted the company’s women’s health programs and support for physician and mem ber education. In a separate survey of managedcare pharmacy executives, Merck was ranked No.1 in overall service to managed care in the spring 2002 audit from Verispan.This was the second audit cycle in a row in which Merck finished first overall. Pharmacy executives say Merck account person nel are “absolutely the best;smart; on top of issues.” One pharmacy executive notes that the company “sees managed care as a partner to maximize value of remaining patents.” By region of the country, Merck’s strongest overall performance was in the Midwest and Northeast. The company also finished in the top five for contracts, valueadded services, and knowledgeable account per sonnel. Novartis ranked second for overall service, one point from tying Merck for first. For the third consecutive audit, Novartis finished first for con tracts. The company also cap tured the top spot for knowl edgeable account personnel. Aventis improved its rank ing to finish third for overall service in spring 2002. Pan elists commented favorably on Aventis’ knowledgeable account personnel, flexibility in contracting and pricing, and focus on managed care. GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth placed fourth and fifth, respectively, for overall service. Pharmacia improved in three of the four assessment areas, earning a spot in the top 10 for contracts, valueadded ser vices,and overall service. In the valueadded ser vices, knowledgeable account personnel, and overall service categories, Lilly finished sixth, ninth,and 13th,respectively. In the knowledgeable account personnel area, the company ranked ninth, up from 39th in fall 2001. Abbott and Forest ranked in the top 10 for overall service. This was Abbott’s fourth con secutive finish in the top 10; Forest has placed in the audit’s top 10 for overall service since spring 1999. A third survey, this one of managedcare phar macy executives, gave Aventis top honors for con veying messages from managedcare organizations to physicians, according to ScottLevin’s spring 2002 edition of The ScottLevin Strategic Advantage: A Competitive View of Managed Care Sales Forces from Verispan. Communicating managed care’s message to doctors is known as “pullthrough.”Pharmacy execu tives often use pharmaceutical account personnel to convey a managedcare organization’s message to physicians.These messages may include, but are not limited to, formulary changes/updates, educational information, programs, appropriate utilization, mar ket share, and guidelines. In one of the eight imageassessment areas tracked by the study,respondents were asked to iden tify the companies that do the best and worst job of conveying the managedcare organization’s message to physicians.Rankings were based on net scores. Aventis was singled out for offering clear expla nations and spreading the message to network doc tors;good pullthrough for Allegra; and for having a goodsize salesforce and [being] committed to delivering the appropriate message. Abbott placed second in this assessment cate gory. Pharmacy executives complimented Abbott for conveying messages surrounding appropriate antibiotic use. Merck finished third for conveying managedcare messages to doctors. A separate Verispan audit has found that phar maceutical companies have been steadily increas ing promotion to the longterm care industry. Between spring 2000 and spring 2002, contacts made to longterm care grew 47%, according to the ScottLevin Nursing Home Pharmacy Provider/Con sultant Promotional Audit from Verispan. The 2002 ScottLevin Strategic Advantage report indicates that 13 pharmaceutical companies now have salesforces dedicated to the longterm care industry, while another five have partially dedicated sales teams. In spring 2002, longterm care providers and consultant pharmacists participating in the Nursing Home Pharmacy Provider/Consultant Promotional Audit rated Johnson & Johnson best for overall ser vice and No. 1 in three of the four assessment cate gories: contracts, knowledgeable reps, and overall service,while placing the company second for value added services. Pfizer came in first place in the valueadded ser vices category, while ranking second in contracts, knowledgeable reps, and overall service. Novartis improved its rankings in each assess ment area and was among the top five in all four cat egories.The company rose from fifth to third in over all service between fall 2001 and spring 2002. Pharmacia remained fourth for overall service and, for the second time since the Pharmacia/Searle merger, finished among the top 10 in each area. AstraZeneca improved its ranking in three of the four assessment categories in spring 2002:contracts, knowledgeable reps, and overall service.The compa ny made its biggest improvement in overall service, jumping from ninth to fifth. VERISPAN AUDITS RANK PHARMA COMPANIES According to Service and Promotion Four recent Verispan studies have ranked phar maceutical companies’ overall service to managedcare med ical directors, overall service to managedcare pharmacy executives, conveying mes sages from managedcare organizations to physicians, and promotion to the long term care industry. Pfizer was ranked the top pharmaceutical company for overall service to managed care medical directors, accord ing to the Spring 2002 Scott–Levin Managed Care Medical Director Promotional Audit from Verispan. Pfizer fin ished No.1 for valueadded ser vices and overall service. The company also was ranked first in the disease management area, a distinction it has held since spring 2000. Pfizer made the secondhighest number of contacts to medical directors in spring 2002. Medical directors praised Pfizer for its support of valueadded programs and good working relationships. One panelist said the company provided “reliable information and [was] willing to support organizational needs through grants.” GlaxoSmithKline tied for second place in overall service in spring 2002. The company finished first in the clinical objectivity, disease manage ment, and knowledgeable account personnel categories. Aventis also was ranked second for overall service by medical directors in spring 2002. The company placed third for clinical objectivity. Merck & Co. finished fourth for overall service and remained in the top five in all assessment areas. Cozaar and Vioxx were the company’s most promoted products. Wyeth rose to fifth in overall MEDICAL DIRECTORS IDENTIFY TOP5 PHARMACOMPANIESON: 1.Pfizer 2.Aventis 2.GlaxoSmithKline 4.Merck 5.Wyeth OVERALL SERVICE 1.Merck 2.Novartis 2.Aventis 4.GlaxoSmithKline 5.Wyeth OVERALL SERVICE TOMANAGEDCARE 1.Aventis 2.Abbott 2.Merck 4.Novartis 5.Wyeth CONVEYING MANAGEDCARE MESSAGES 1. Johnson & Johnson 2.Pfizer 2.Novartis 4.Pharmacia 5.AstraZeneca OVERALL SERVICETO LONG TERM CARE PHARMACISTS Source:Spring 2002 ScottLevin’s:Nursing Home Pharmacy Provider/Consultant Promotional Audit;Managed Care Medical Director Promotional Audit;Strategic Advantage:A Competitive View of Man aged Care Sales Forces;and ManagedCare Pharmacy Executive Promotional Audit PHARMA trax 60 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 2 PharmaVOICE Healthcare Sector Provides NEW REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES for Telecommunications Industry As the telecommunications industry struggles to overcome the adverse effects of the economic downturn, the healthcare sector will offer important new revenue opportunities, according to analysis from Frost & Sullivan. A study of the U.S. Healthcare Vertical Telecommunications Markets has revealed that the healthcare segment generated revenue totaling $18.2 billion in 2001. Steady growth could take total revenue to $24.1 billion in 2005. Developing the infrastructure for telemedicine applications, which can extend access for individu als in rural areas to primary care, specialists, and health education is expected to provide a means for carriers to enter the healthcare sector or expand market share. “The federal government and research universi ties are showing increasing interest in telemedicine,” says Stephanie Atkinson, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Telemedicine and telehealth initiatives will demand more advanced telecommunication services as they grow and become more accepted, `normal’ forms of healthcare.” Building telemedicine networks will require more sophisticated software, hardware, and wireline and wireless telecommunication services. Highend data transmission will be needed to transfer images, video, and voice between doctors, nurses, and other hospitals or clinics. In addition, the expansion of wireless applica tions for healthcare providers could bolster revenue growth. “Wireless handheld devices and personal digital assistants are used by many physicians and nurses to research healthcare information, view patient records,prescribe medications,and more,”Ms.Atkin son says.“By offering a means to increase data accu racy and ultimately improve patient care, handheld services are expected to grow rapidly, especially as they are proven to be secure and reliable.” CYBERCHONDRIACS SUPPORT PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES Communicating Directly With Consumers Online Cyberchondriacs — people who use the Inter net for health or healthcare — support the idea of pharmaceutical companies communicating directly with consumers online. A recent Harris Interactive online survey of cyberchondriacs in France, Ger many, Japan, and the U.S. found that the strongest support for direct online contact with pharmaceuti cal companies is in the U.S. (87% in favor), and the weakest is in Japan (59% in favor). Although the U.S. was found to be the most open to using the Internet for various healthrelated PHYSICIANS SAYTHE INTERNET PLAYS AN IMPORTANTROLE IN PRACTICING MEDICINE. Almost half of physicians surveyed by the American Medical Association say the Internet has had a major impact on the way they practice medicine.The rising influence of the Internet on clinical medicine has propelled an increase in the frequency and duration of Web use among the 78% of physicians who now make use of cyberspace. These findings come from the 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web,which interviewed a total of 977 physicians in the U.S. from August to December 2001. The survey is the fourth analysis of nationwide patterns of online physicians conducted by the AMA. AMASURVEYCONCLUDESTHE INTERNET IS IMPACTINGTHE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE MEDICAL SPECIALISTSWEBSITE DEVELOPMENT 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Obstetrics/Gynecology Surgery Pediatrics Family Practice Internal Medicine Anesthesiology Radiology Psychiatry Other 44% 32% 42% 43% 39% 36% 36% 29% 30% 20% 17% 10% 13% 16% 12% 9% 23% 23% Source: 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’Use of the World Wide Web 2001 2000 . Physici n use of the Web is becoming more frequent. Twothirds of online physicians access theWeb daily,an increase of 24% since 1997. . Physicians whouse theWebhaveextended the hours they spend online. The average number of hours a physician uses the Web per week jumped from 4.3 hours in 1997 to 7.1 hours in 2001. . Additional growth can be expected in the number of hours spent on theWeb,with physicians indicating they expect to use the Internet an average of 9.6 hours per week during the next six months. . Although there is still a trend for younger physicians to use the Web more than older physicians, the percentage of older physicians using the Web increased rapidly from the previous year. In 2001,65% of physicians 60 years old or older used theWeb,compared with 43% in 2000. . About 3 of 10 physicians using the Internet currently have aWebsite, a proportion that has remained constant since 1999. . The primary reasons physicians have a site on the Web is to promote and advertise their practice or provide patient education and information. In 2001, the percentage of physicians using the Web to advertise and promote their practice increased by11% from the previous year. Source: 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web TRENDS IN PHYSICIAN INTERNET USAGE PHARMA trax purposes,it also is the least open to using Websites not developed in their own country. This online study was conducted in January 2002 with 309 cyberchondriacs in the U.S.,327 in France,407 in Germany, and 275 in Japan. Being a Couch Potato is BAD FORTHE EYES Surfing theWeb and watching televi sion not only can add extra pounds and mental stress but have a negative impact on vision, too. Sales of eyecare products designed to soothe eyes that are red,dry,or otherwise irritated, have been rising, a fact that may be related to the fact that antidepressants and flickering computer and television screens can cause dry eyes,according to a study by Novartis Ophthalmics. Data supplied by Nielsen Media Research indi cate that television news shows were top ranked fol lowing the terrorist attacks of September 11. In addi tion, Jupiter Media Metrix reported that more than 50 million people visited Web news sites last September, up 11% from August 2000. “ This is the time of year when we expect some seasonal spikes in sales of some of our products because of eye irritation associated with allergies,” says Dr. Yvonne Johnson,director of medical affairs for Novartis Ophthalmics. “But this spike is larger than normal indicating that there are other causes.” Certain antidepressants and the decreased blink ing associated with constant computer and televi sion viewing also can cause dry eye. Dr. Johnson notes that sales of her company’s dryeye treatment product GenTeal,have increased over the same period from last year. Dry eye is char acterized by irritation, redness, burning, itching, scratchiness, tearing, sensitivity to light, and/or mucus secretion. In addition, prescriptions for antidepressants increased 16% nationally in the last two weeks of September 2001 over the same period the year before, according to statistics from a nationwide health information service. Statistics from a National Science Foundation study on children 9 years old through 17 years old, revealed that kids spend an average of six and one half hours a day watching TV, playing computer games, and surfing the Internet. According to Par ents Television Council, children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep. “I agree with the mental health professionals that suggest that we shouldn’t watch TV news all the time and instead take it in smaller bites,”says Dr. Johnson.“Remember what your mother used to say: ` Turn off that TV and go outside’. That’s still good advice today. It’s not only good for your eyes but for your weight and your mental health, no matter how old you are.” The National Mental Health Association of Geor gia advises that watching too much television news or surfing theWeb for reports of terrorist attacks,bio chemical warfare, job layoffs,and war are not healthy for a person’s mental or physical wellbeing. HARRIS INTERACTIVE STUDY FINDS DIRECT ONLINE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES ANDCONSUMERSPROMPTS ACTION 38% 13% 19% 9% 23% 7% 14% 3% 8% 3% 14% 5% 6% 6% 9% 2% 8% 7% Source: Harris Interactive,January 2002 Discussed information with doctor Took overthecounter medication Asked doctor for prescription medication Made appointment to see doctor Started alternative treatment n U.S.A. n France n Germany n Japan 13% 12% ACNIELSEN U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., is a marketing information company.For more information,visit acnielsen.com. AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, Chicago, is an organization consisting of physicians dedicated to the health of America. For more information,visit amaassn.org. BEST PRACTICES LLC,Chapel Hill, N.C., conducts studies into the best business practices, operating tactics, and winning strategies of worldclass organizations.For more information,visit bestinclass.com. FROST & SULLIVAN,San Antonio,Texas, provides strategic market consulting and training. For more information,visit frost.com. HARRIS INTERACTIVE,Rochester, N.Y., is a worldwide market research and consult ing firm. For more information,visit harris interactive.com. NOVARTISOPHTHALMICS is a global leader in the research,development,and manufacturing of leading ophthalmic pharmaceuticals that assist in the treat ment of glaucoma,agerelated macular degeneration,eye inflammation,ocular allergies, and other diseases and disorders of the eye;U.S.headquarters are in Atlanta, with worldwide headquarters in Bulach,Switzerland.For more information, visit novartisophthalmics.com. VERISPAN,Newtown,Pa., is a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp. that provides patientlevel, longitudinal data, with deidentified data from about 1.4 billion U.S. pharmacy transactions and about 275 million electronic medical transactions annually.For more information,visit verispan.com. Follow up According to Dr. Yvonne Johnson, director of medical affairs for Novartis Ophthalmics, the recent spike in sales for dryeye products can be attributed to more than seasonal allergies.
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