Pharma Informatics

Pharma Closed Loop Marketing Vendors

2009-04-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

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.

Pharma Web 2.0 Strategies

2009-04-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

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.

meet Jessica

View more presentations from bengardner135.

Web 2.0 will act as a booster for the pharmceutical company. It leverages the internet strategy for every company to hone its internal as well as external stake holders with ease. There will also be a paradigm shift in the mind set of customers to adopt and respond to the changing technologies. A change for good.

Download CLC WorkBench Trial Software

2009-04-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

CLC Workbench trial software is a next generation sequencing solution from CLCbio.
Click to Download

Download Geneious Basic 4.5

2009-04-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

Geneious is a combination of DNA and Protein sequence analysis tools in to one software solution.
Click to Download the Trial version

Download Progeny 7 Free Trial

2009-04-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

Progeny Clinical is a Clinical Data Management Software
Click to Download the Free Trial

Openclinica for Free

2009-04-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Openclinica is an open source and free clinical trial software platform for EDC (Electronic Data Capture) and CDM (Clinical Data Management).
Click to Download the Free Version

Oracle and Relsys - What could be the reason?

2009-04-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Prosarix Ltd

2009-04-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

The company
Prosarix Ltd is a computational chemistry company specialising in small molecule screening and design.

Main Products/Services
Through the use of its proprietary technology platform, ProtoDiscovery™, the Company carries out serviced-based discovery projects as well as generating pre-clinical development candidates for out-licensing.
For more Inforamtion http://www.prosarix.com/

Pharma Sales forecasting models from Pharmanalytics

2009-04-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

There are two important models that are adopted nowadays in the pharmaceutical Industry more specifically in the Analytics: Prescription-based sales forecasting model and patient-based sales forecasting model. These models are utilized in sales forecasting and improving decisions. Pharmanalytics is a consulting company that specializes in these models for the clients in the lifesciences Industry.

Prescription-based sales forecasting model
“part-art, part-science” as described by Pharmanalytics is the prescription-based forecasting. This model connects the past to the present market situations and supports users in establishing forecasting baselines for better decisions. This is done through careful selection of appropriate analogues. This improvises the marketing decisions helping them to comprehend the linkage between past and the present.

Patient-based sales forecasting model
The sales forecasting can be performed by patient-based model that allows users to capture the sales and potential of various markets based on different therapeutic agents. Here the segmentation is done on specific disease areas. The model is useful to analyze inwardly of few details that prescription-based model cannot provide.

Do you have a CCDM certification?

2009-04-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

Do you feel that your career in clinical data management is secure? Clinical trials business shall be everlasting as the need to collect clinical data and manage it would be an ongoing process in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Therefore it guarantees a secure career for individuals who prefer being a clinical data management professional. To be significant in this industry, you can hone yourself with CCDM (Certified Clinical Data Manager) certification exam from SCDM (Society for Clinical Data Management). I suggest this as the best option. The Society for Clinical Data Management (SCDM) is a non-profit professional society founded to advance the discipline of Clinical Data Management. The binding interest of all members is quality clinical data management practices. Obtaining this certification is a credit to your profile and affirms your commitment in this profession. This exam is arduous and it requires ample knowledge to clear it. The specifications are more on knowledge of data collection methods and identifying the important data and dealing with it. Knowledge of guidelines such as 21 CFR Part 11, GCP, and ICH guidelines is essential. All the information can be collected from http://www.scdm.org/certification/

Sales Force layoff and Closed Loop Marketing

2009-04-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

There is no escape for the pharmaceutical Industry on the layoff spree that is occuring in USA and Europe for rest of the industries. The Industry was infleunced and were also proactive even before economic crisis due to reasons such as falling drug pipelines, increased generic competition, patent expires etc. Another significant reason for the layoff is restructuring of the companies. While 2008 witness a huge layoff, 2009 will also persist on the same.

The major layoff that happened in 2008 was from Wyeth, Astra Zeneca, Abbott, Merck, Scherin-Plough, UCB Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squib and Pfizer with a total of more than 28,000 job cuts. Most of the companies cut will be through 2010, as they are planning to streamline drug pipelines and focus on development of drugs.

The recent intended elimination plan was from Pfizer early in 2009, and the number was 20,000 employees which is a long term strategic move from Pfizer after the acquisition of Wyeth. Henceforth, the Industry is at bad times in the layoff standpoint. But this creates opportunities for vendors in this space.

The total number of SFA (Sales Force Automation) software users in USA has fall down from 100000 to 94000 over the last two to three years and this indicates that licensing of software has come down. This also signals restructuring of sales and marketing strategies from large companies. New concept of ‘Getting things done with few reps’ is gaining importance, and this delivers eminence to new IT solutions such as Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) to the top of priority for the pharmaceutical companies to invest. There has also been a strong focus on CLM from various vendors. Aligning solution offering to the needs of the Industry from time to time was always profitable for vendors despite any crisis. To change and to change for better is good.