Many Pharmaceutical companies are moving ahead from the conventional sales models to the new e-merging sales models. Electronically merging the contents to counter the subconscious of the physician is the latest happening in the Industry. There are three main reasons behind this paradigm 'swift' , the swift is to moving ahead to closed loop marketing (CLM). One you can reduce the sales force, How? Imagine a sales rep three to four brochures to a physician, hence a company requires five sales rep to promote their twenty products. In case of this e-merging sales model such as closed loop marketing, two sales rep would perform the job of five. This is a fair idea where the sales reps are not required to acquire all the product details as he would be promoting through his tablet-PC. The concept of 1/2 a sales force equating the one full sales force will become a reality.

Sales force layoff is becoming a trend now as more companies are under a cost-cutting mode. Factors like product pipelines becoming weakened, increasing generic competition and off-patents in the coming years contribute to this lay off trend.

The second reason for closed loop marketing to be adopted is that it is optimizing sales and the marketing in a Pharmaceutical company. There is a increased chance for more data through this technology which could be leveraged for innovative marketing decisions and support.

The third reason is a fact that, this intensifies the relationship with physicians. The multimedia and graphical content are proved to be more effective than the other modes of promotion. Moreover there is a reduction in printing and administrative cost related to sales and marketing channels.

Having a quick look on the various CLM (Closed Loop Marketing) vendors:

Proscape Technologies - US Based

Skura - US Based

Agnitio - Europe Based

All the vendors provide CLM suite to pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies. They also partner with leading CRM vendors to upsell thier products. CLM being will slowly catch up the rest of the world which is now significantly growing in US and Europe. Its now or never.

Web 2.0 in the Pharma industry is spoken elsewhere, but the need for clarity on its implementation and the benefits is not open. Pharma Industry can always look for newfangled means to approach the consumer and the physicians through Web 2.0.
On a quicker look on how companies execute thier web 2.0 startegy, here are some few strategies followed by big pharma.

GSK:
The blog is http://www.gsk.fr/avenirdelasante/. GSK's initiative was excellent where it debates issues, provide info on discussion of various hot topics. This is more to support the people as well as the healthcare system of France. However, this does not help to target customers but to act as a marketing tool to promote GSK and its ideas to all the stake holders in the value chain.
Pfizer:
Pfizerpedia, named similar to Wikepedia, is an extreme knowledge communicating platform. Its a information sharing site to Pfizers R&D and sales professionals. It has now more than 5000 content pages. Pfizer's colloboration with Sermo is another example that unveils the importance of Web 2.0 in this Industry.
J&J:
http://jnjbtw.com/ is the blog from J&J that directs events and news about J&J in the internet media.

epilepsy.com is a platform where companies such as Abbott, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and GSK engross wholly with the online community of epilepsy patients, families, and healthcare providers. This allows them to brand and act as a benefactor to the community.

Here is a sample presentation of Pfizerpedia.

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Firstly, I was astounded with the news of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) purchasing Relsys International Inc., one of a leading provider of AERS (Adverse Event Reporting Systems) or the so called drug safety systems in the Pharmaceutical Industry. There are only four major players in the AERS market namely: Aris Global, Relsys, Oracle and Phase Forward. Remarkably these companies are widely known and esteemed for their products and service offerings in the Pharmacovigilance space. I was also wondering who could have offered the initial talks in this deal. Though the terms of purchase haven’t been disclosed, I can ascertain that it would be a Relsys move. For various reasons, one is Pharmacovigilance software market is in a matured stage. There must be some level of struggling to demonstrate the same revenue growth level YOY that Relsys would have experienced in retrospect. Relsys already enjoys a strong position in the market with product development that supervenes regularly. Apart from this, they have a strong presence in the global market with top pharmaceutical companies and CRO as their customers. This take me to speculation for the deal being materialized, however now, as all the press releases says, Oracle Corp. will be strategically positioned and poised to be a new market leader with the integrated suite of enterprise software in the Drug safety space.