Tuesday 30 September 2014

EMA wants to embed patient viewpoint within drug assessment

Will pilot CHMP benefit-risk evaluation project


European Medicines Agency (EMA) - logo The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has launched a pilot project to involve patients in the assessment of the benefits and risks of medicines in its scientific advisory committee.


The project is one of the first of its kind to include patients’ views and values in the assessment stage for medicines.


As part of the project, patients will be invited to present their views on medicines for which there is an unmet medical need and where the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) still has concerns or doubts.


Patients may also be invited to give their views in cases where the CHMP is considering the withdrawal, suspension or revocation of a marketing authorisation or a restriction of indication of an authorised medicine.


Guido Rasi, EMA executive director, said: “As patients live with their condition on a day-to-day basis, their views on the therapeutic effect of a medicine and its impact on their quality of life – particularly when these are balanced against the risks – may differ from those of other stakeholders.”


“Involving patients in CHMP discussions brings the patients’ voice into the decision-making process and ultimately contributes to the safe and rational use of medicines,” he added.


Patients who participate will give their views and may actively take part in the discussion, including posing questions to the company. They will, however, not take part in any decision-making process.


The first medicine to be included in the project is the orphan drug afamelanotide and its use to treatment a rare genetic blood disorder which causes an absolute intolerance to light called erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP).


The pilot project will run for at least one year to allow a full assessment of the feasibility of involving patients in the CHMP explanations. A report on the experience will be presented to the CHMP at the end of the pilot phase and will address issues including organisational aspects, feedback from the CHMP and patients involved and areas for improvement.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/ema_wants_to_embed_patient_viewpoint_within_drug_assessment_602494




EMA wants to embed patient viewpoint within drug assessment

Monday 29 September 2014

Novartis named digital pharma company of the year

Takes prize at the PM Society Digital Media Awards

Novartis buildingNovartis was announced the first winner of digital pharmaceutical company of the year at last night’s PM Society Digital Media Awards in London.

The company beat off competition from Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech (Roche), GSK and Sanofi to take the new prize, the result of which was based on an assessment of social media presence, website quality, digital tools and other digital initiatives.


The honour follows a successful awards event for Novartis in 2013 when they picked up four awards, including integrated multichannel campaign and digital patient communications programme – patient education.


Shire Pharmaceuticals also had a prosperous night at the event, taking home two gold awards for its work with McCann Manchester. The partners picked up best healthcare professional website for the ADHD resource Full Attention UK and best corporate communications for the Elvanse Playbook app.


The World Hepatitis Alliance and Red Door Communications also picked up two gold awards with prizes for their Know It. Confront It campaign to raise awareness of hepatitis in the integrated multichannel campaign and social media categories. (Read a case study of the campaign.)



Red Door Communications and the World Hepatitis Alliance used the three wise monkeys in a video campaign to raise awareness of World Hepatitis Day


Companies that won gold in the other categories included Rosemount Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Roche, SPMSD, Actavis+Warner Chilcott, Novo Nordisk, Takeda, Galderma and Bayer Healthcare.


As for the individual awards, digital pioneer went to Adam Boucher of Novo Nordisk. He serves as medical education at the company in the UK and played a vital role in Novo’s Decisions in Time series of workshops to bring patient case studies to life.


Best digital project or account manager went to Rebeka Morley from Health iQ.


See the full list of gold winners below.


Digital sales aid

ImpactZone – ClinACCESS

By: M3 with MSA Media and Rainmaker

For: Rosemont Pharmaceuticals Limited


Healthcare professional educational programme

nasalspraylearning

By: nitrogen

For: AstraZeneca


Healthcare professional website

Full Attention UK

By: McCann Manchester

For: Shire Pharmaceuticals Ltd


Digital tools for use in a practical setting

Roche Clinical Trial Training Portal

By: go digital health / Virgo Health

For: Roche


Digital patient communications programme – patient education

Are You Ready 2 Go? Website and Travel Planner

By: Cherry

For: SPMSD


Digital patient communications programme – patient adherence/compliance

Assure Patient Support Programme

By: Actavis + Warner Chilcott UK Ltd


Social media

Know It. Confront It.

By: Red Door Communications

For: World Hepatitis Alliance


Digital solution for congress / symposium

Decisions in Time

By: emotive 
For: Novo Nordisk


Integrated multichannel campaign

Know It. Confront It.

By: Red Door Communications

For: World Hepatitis Alliance


Corporate communications

Elvanse Playbook App

By: McCann Manchester

For: Shire Pharmaceuticals Ltd


Craft Award – Film and animation

The Boy I Used to Know

By: Real Science Communications

For: Takeda


Craft Award – Mobile

MyRosacea mobile app

By: RFA Advertising & Marketing

For: Galderma UK


Craft Award – Gamification

Aiir

By: Langland


Innovation Award ‘pushing boundaries’

Influencer network mapping

By: Inspired Science

For: Bayer HealthCare


Digital Project or Account Management Award

Rebeka Morley

Company: Health iQ


Digital Pioneer Award 2014

Adam Boucher

Company: Novo Nordisk


Digital pharmaceutical company of the year

Novartis


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/novartis_named_digital_pharma_company_of_the_year_601800




Novartis named digital pharma company of the year

Friday 26 September 2014

The onward march of the century makers


Birthday cake and balloons

There are more and more 100 birthday parties

Austerity may be gripping Whitehall but one department is increasing staff numbers – the Department for Work and Pensions.


The new employees are needed to organise the growing number of congratulatory cards for centenarians.


The increasingly long lists are dispatched to Buckingham Palace so officials can get the Queen’s birthday messages in the post.


Figures from the Office for National Statistics, noted by the DWP, show there are now 13,780 people aged 100 or more in the UK, an increase of 70% over the last decade.


That number is dominated by women with men accounting only for around 2,000.


Current estimates suggest that one in three children born today will reach the age of 100.


‘Inexorable rise’ in costs


Three men watching the sunset

Some will spend up to 40% of their lives in retirement

Beyond the birthday celebrations and all those candles, what is the significance of all this?



Longevity and the ageing of society have profound implications for health and social care, pensions and public spending”



Quite simply the growing army of centenarians illustrates one of the most important economic and social trends of our time.


Longevity and the ageing of society have profound implications for health and social care, pensions and public spending.


DWP ministers have been quick to point out that there have been pension reforms to underpin and sustain pensioner incomes.


They also note that many of those who reach the age of 100 will have been in retirement for more than 30 years.


For some, it will be more than 40% of their adult lives since they last received their final pay packet from work.


Even with people working longer and a rising state pension age, the costs to the public purse will rise inexorably.


The Office for Budget Responsibility predicted this year that state pension costs will increase from 5.5% of annual economic output (GDP) in 2018-19 to 8.5% in 2063-64.


Life expectancy – up or down?More older people with multiple ailments are adding to the workload of the NHS.


Some are living through their nineties with several conditions, any one of which might have caused their death in previous generations.


Over the same time period (2018/19-2063/64), according to the OBR, health spending rises from 6.5% of GDP to 8.5% and long term social care from 1.2% to 2.3%.


An ageing population means a larger chunk of national income devoted to their well-being.



There may be a time when the DWP and the Palace have to quietly drop the idea of those cards for centenarians”



The UK is by no means alone in facing these demographic pressures.


Some leading economies such as Japan and Germany have a higher number of elderly people expressed as a percentage of the working population (the “dependency ratio”).


But longer life-spans and the growing number reaching their century will present continuing challenges to the economy and public services.


There is a view that lifestyle factors such as diet and lack of exercise could slow or reverse the steady increase in longevity seen over recent decades.


Others argue that life expectancy will continue its upward trend.


The gerontologist Aubrey de Grey has been a regular guest at pension industry conferences with his argument there is someone alive now who will live to the age of 1,000.


In the worlds of health and pensions policy most debates lead back to longevity.


There may be a time when the DWP and the Palace have to quietly drop the idea of those cards for centenarians – or perhaps raise the qualifying bar to somewhere above that 100 year milestone.






Source BBC News/Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29375577



The onward march of the century makers

Thursday 25 September 2014

Nursing tech fund 2 to be open to all


Further details about the second round of NHS England’s Nursing Technology Fund, including an expansion of eligible organisations, are set to be released shortly.


Caroline Alexander, NHS England’s regional chief nurse for London, told the Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology conference that the organisation is “at the final stages of decision-making” for the second round of the fund, with an announcement expected soon.


NHS England received more than 220 applications from 140 trusts for the first round of the fund, with 85 projects from 75 trusts chosen to receive a share of the £30m on offer.


Alexander said NHS England is aware of frustrations from care providers about the limitations of the first round, which was open only to trusts and foundation trusts.


She said she “anticipates” that the second round will be open to any providers of NHS-funded nursing care, including social enterprises and local authorities.


“In the future, when care is delivered in a range of different settings, there needs to be that backing there for everyone.”


Alexander said the second round of the fund will also allow applications for a wider range of projects than the first round, which focussed on mobile working, digital pens and bedside monitoring.


“The first round was very quick, but we had to get it up and running quickly to help make changes in the most systematic way possible.”


She added that she hoped the second round will encourage collaboration between the nursing profession and healthcare IT professionals.


“It’s not about the technology people; it’s about the nursing and the technology people working together to get things right.


“We don’t want people to fail in this, so we need innovators who will help the nursing profession to take technology seriously.”


Alexander said applicants will also need to show that they can implement the technology they request in such a way that it is put to the best use possible. She said they will have to show there is a strong clinical benefit underpinning it.


“We need to make sure they’ve thought through how to implement stuff – you see cases where they’ve bought a lot of new kit but it never gets delivered, because they don’t have the structures in place.


“People are still thinking about it as bits of kit; they’re not embedding it in temporal thinking about what we can do.”


Despite this, Alexander said community health is one area set to undergo a technology transformation.


“We’ve got a great opportunity: we’re at the heart of a time where the community revolution is about to start, and it’s time to get some really innovative community technology out there.”


Source EHI http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/9652/nursing-tech-fund-2-to-be-open-to-all


25 September 2014   Sam Sachdeva


Wednesday 24 September 2014

Pharma spent $342m on journal advertising in first half of 2014

J&J led spending and Invokana was most advertised brand


edit-Kantar_Media_PHPharma companies spent more than $342m on print advertising in professional health journals in the first six months of this year, according to new figures.


Kantar Media says its research shows a 1% rise in pharma’s print journal advertising and it names Johnson & Johnson – whose spending of almost $23m on advertising drugs products accounts for 7$ of the total advertising share – as the industry’s single biggest spender.


GlaxoSmithKline was the second highest spender investing $9m, less than half that spent by Johnson & Johnson, but up 110% for the company compared to the 2013 period.


Takeda, Pfizer and Novartis were the next highest spenders, each investing $7m in print advertising.


Kantar says the total number of advertising pages purchased in medical journals was down, year-on-year, by 2% to 53,094.


On a therapy basis, oncology brands lead the spending, accounting for $25m and making up 7% of the total market share, followed by oral diabetes drugs ($14m), up 52% from July 2013, and forming 4% of sales.


Meanwhile, in brand terms Invokana, the first-in-class type 2 diabetes drug from J&J’s Janssen unit was the most advertised drug product in the first six months of 2014.


J&J spent $12m to advertise the drug, which was approved in the US in April 2013, was up 84% on the same period in 2013, while Lundbeck’s antidepressant Brintellix was next in spending terms with $7m.


Behind those two came Bayer’s blood clot drug Xarelto and Forest’s anti-depression treatment Fetzima, each of which spent $5m on print journal advertising.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/pharma_spent_$342m_on_journal_advertising_in_first_half_of_2014_598144




Pharma spent $342m on journal advertising in first half of 2014

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Mayden Deal Strengthens HealthMotive’s Reputation as SMSP Powerhouse

Mayden Deal Strengthens HealthMotive’s Reputation as SMSP Powerhouse


Mayden has entered into a contract with HealthMotive to incorporate HealthMotive’s innovative Spin Messaging Handler (SMH) product into Mayden’s product offering.


This follows the recent accreditation of SMH as a formally accredited ITK-compliant Spine Mini Services Provider (SMSP) by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), meaning that healthcare software vendors and end-user organisations which use SMH as an SMSP can bypass the need for accreditation of their own systems.


The SMSP service will allow Mayden to quickly and securely access patient demographic information and NHS numbers from the NHS Spine without organisations having to be individually accredited. This agreement is the largest contract to date involving this type of specialist Personal Demographics Service (PDS) integration software, with Mayden’s IAPTus product alone serving over 90 Health Trusts.


HealthMotive assisted Mayden in transferring from their previous supplier’s SMSP to the new service. The tightness of the ITK specification means that transferring between SMSP vendors is a matter of ‘plug-and-play’. Mayden chose to enter into a contract with HealthMotive for two main reasons: lower costs and greater flexibility in terms of both the technical solution and the licensing options. Operations Director at Mayden, Chris Eldridge, explains ”HealthMotive offered us the flexibility we need to ensure that we can build SMH into our range of existing products, and gives us confidence that we can add value to future Mayden systems by making this option available to new clients.”


SMH is an out-of-the-box solution that can be easily integrated to any system and enables direct communication with the NHS’ PDS. Healthmotive provides system developers with a set of technical libraries and an Internet-hosted test instance of SMH, meaning that integration can take as little as 24hrs to achieve.


SMH’s cross-platform architecture allows for easy deployment, low maintenance and flexible usage based on the license model. The product offers: batch or real-time access to Spine data; use with either an embedded or external database; cloud-hosted or locally deployed options; low resource requirements; and per-transaction or per-installation licensing models. In addition, SMH is the first SMSP accredited for multi-tenanted use, meaning that multiple organisations can use a single instance.


HealthMotive is currently developing their SMH product offering by incorporating two further SMSP extensions to allow customers to query other national databases such as the Child Protection – Information Sharing Project (CP-IS) and the Summary Care Record. According to HealthMotive Director, Paul Richardson “these further extensions will underpin SMH’s credentials as the ‘Swiss army knife’ of Spine connectivity; an indispensable tool for any healthcare system vendor.”


 


About HealthMotive


HealthMotive is a healthcare solutions company that focuses on providing the tools for other healthcare systems companies, e.g. PAS vendors, to connect to the NHS Spine. Their Spine Message Handler product is a mature, cross-platform component that is used for Choose and Book, PDS, electronic prescriptions and pathology messaging. HealthMotive consists of highly experienced healthcare informatics professionals that are trained to cater for all business or clinical needs.


For more information visit: www.healthmotive.co.uk


 


About Mayden


Mayden specialises in innovative, flexible and cloud-based software solutions. They are driven by the desire to add real value to healthcare by developing applications that have the power to change the way services are delivered by staff, and experienced by patients. Their patient management system for psychological therapies (IAPTus) is the market leading solution and is being used by over 90 organisations nationwide covering 70% of the country. IAPTus is just one of a broad range of Mayden’s products and services that will integrate SMH to allow users to securely look up key data from the Spine.


For more information visit: www.mayden.co.uk



Mayden Deal Strengthens HealthMotive’s Reputation as SMSP Powerhouse

Monday 22 September 2014

NHS launches MyNHS transparency site

Allows public to view performance data and shape services


NHS England logo


The NHS has launched a new transparency website to make existing data on patient safety, efficiency, quality, public health, social care commissioning and hospital food standards more easily comparable and available to the public.


Clinicians, managers, patient groups and campaigners will be able to use the new MyNHS site to find the best performing areas, with the hope this will help improve standards through competition and transparency.


Tim Kelsey, national director for patients and information at NHS England, said: “The NHS is a global leader in openness and transparency. MyNHS is a big step forward towards our transparency vision, bringing together data from across the health and care system for the first time and presenting it in accessible, understandable and meaningful way.”


The NHS wants the site to help it hear what the public wants – to this end there is a feedback button placed on every page so that suggestions from the health and care sector can help improve the data over time.


Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, said: “MyNHS is a powerful new tool that will give professionals across the healthcare system the opportunity to learn from each other and improve their services.


“This is the next step of the journey we are taking to create the most open and transparent healthcare system in the world.”


The website is a joint project between the Department of Health, NHS England, Public Health England (PHE), the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/nhs_launches_mynhs_transparency_site_600108




NHS launches MyNHS transparency site

Friday 19 September 2014

Where is the future for pharma marketing?

publicis Sam-Welch


Publicis’ Sam Welch on global shifts in the industry


The changes within the pharmaceutical industry show no signs of abating as financial pressures – whether from the decline of the traditional blockbuster or the rise of cost-containment measures – press down on companies.


As this year’s phoenix-like rise of the mega-merger trend proves, the industry continues to fundamentally rethink how it does business and its approach to marketing is no exception.


Someone with a global perspective on these changes is Sam Welch, Publicis Healthcare Communications’ global group president, and I caught up with him recently to find out how pharma’s marketing and communications requirements are shifting.


What are the key movements you see on both the pharma side and does that effect the agency world?

Sam Welch: Clients are very much centralising how they approach marketing and promotion and strategy, and as a result we are as well.


What we now focus on is really building strong global hubs – New York, Shanghai and London – and then ensuring that we still have a significant agency presence in local markets.


Our overall structure has shifted to be much more global hubs focused on big brand, pan-European strategy, global strategy, and in the local markets much more of a channel implementation.


How big a change is ‘digital’ for the industry?

Sam: Everyone will point to digital, but I think it’s broader than that. With the influx of digital into all of our agencies, it’s a great tool, but it’s just a tool and many agencies are flying blind in terms of implementation. They don’t have a real understanding of where their customers are integrating with media in the market.


In order to make sure that we are really thinking strategically about our promotional strategies, we have invested very heavily in the reintegration of media and analytics into the agencies.


That’s one of the biggest trends we have focused on over the last 12-24 months – making sure that in addition to digital as kind of a baseline – and we’re going to assume that all of our agencies have strong digital capabilities now – there is a build-out of strong media and analytics capabilities within them, so that when they actually get to the point of putting promotional strategies in front of clients, they’re not just flying blind.


How do you see the different healthcare markets differing and who’s leading the way?

Sam: It’s actually amazing how similar and yet how different the markets are. The best way I can categorise it is that Asia is looking at the rest of the world and figuring out how it can get there as quickly as possible – and they’re doing it.


China, for example, is probably second only to the US in terms of implementation of strong analytics-driven multichannel marketing. They have gone from 0 to 100 and they’ve said, ‘You know what? We’re going to skip that whole step in between.’ They’re just looking to say, ‘Okay, where is the future? How do we get there tomorrow? And what do we need to build?’


They have a kind of a young marketing and strategic capability, but their sights are set on having the most mature and most forward-thinking capability as quickly as possible. So our office in Shanghai, for instance, the Saatchi office in Shanghai, is our second largest office next to the US, yet it is almost already at the US standards in terms of multichannel marketing, whereas our offices in the rest of the world are just not there yet, because the client bases aren’t there yet.


But China is moving there as quickly as possible. They’re just going to skip that whole middle step of maturity, growth. They’re just saying, ‘Yeah, that’s for somebody else. That’s not for us. We’re just too big.’


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_thought_leadership/where_is_the_future_for_pharma_marketing_599490




Where is the future for pharma marketing?

Thursday 18 September 2014

Is it time for a mental health waiting target?


A young boy with his hands on his head (his face cannot be seen)

Waiting time targets have become synonymous with the NHS in England. They apply to everything from A&E units and ambulance calls outs to routine surgery and cancer treatment.


But it’s not just an English phenomenon. Other countries in the UK have introduced their own.


The exception is mental health. It should come as no surprise – mental health care is often said to be the poor cousin of the NHS family. Figures show that the condition gets 11% of the budget, but accounts for 28% of the disease burden.


The result is that many people go without help. An estimated three quarters of people with a mental illness receive no treatment. For physical disorders, the rate is nearer a quarter.


Research released this week by We Need to Talk, a coalition of mental health charities and royal colleges, shows this can have devastating consequences.


The group carried out a survey of 2,000 patients who had spent time waiting for psychological therapies. It found of those that faced long waits or went without care, four in 10 had harmed themselves and one in six attempted suicide.















The coalition has called for waiting time targets to be introduced for psychological therapies, suggesting 28 days from referral to treatment. Currently one in three patients wait longer than this – despite evidence showing symptoms get worse after this point.


The call has received some support in the corridors of power. England’s chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has suggested targets may help address some of the disparity she believes exists between physical and mental health conditions, while Care Services Minister Norman Lamb has championed the issue.


NHS England is now looking at how “access standards” could be introduced from 2015. It’s not yet clear how far these would go. But if a mandatory target was to be introduced, would it make a difference?


Andy Bell, deputy chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, thinks so, saying it could “correct the balance”.


“It would send a clear message about what is expected and in turn that would force issues of investment and resources to be addressed. But there would need to be clear entitlements to treatment too. It’s no good setting waiting times if people can’t then get referred.”


It is easy to understand why there is such a desire. While at times maligned, targets have made a huge difference to the patient experience. Before waiting time targets were introduced for routine surgery waits of two years were seen, while delays of 12 hours in A&E units were not unheard of before the four-hour target was installed a decade ago.


But it also needs carefully considering. Mental health services cover a wide range of treatments. While there is evidence that those waiting for psychological therapies should wait no more than 28 days, those needing help from crisis teams or young people experiencing psychosis need immediate attention. It may not be just one target mental health services need, it could be several.



Targets in the NHS in England


ServiceTarget
Routine surgery18 weeks from GP referral to treatment starting
A&EFour hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged
AmbulancesEight minutes for most serious life threatening cases
CancerHost of targets, including two-week wait to be seen after urgent referral




Source BBC News/Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29228148



Is it time for a mental health waiting target?

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Seven steps to innovating your digital strategy

Dealing with digitally native HCPs


digital numbersIn a distant backwater village of Old Pharma, rumours of the imminent arrival of the Natives are greatly exaggerated. The Natives aren’t coming; they’re already here. In fact, after a long-running struggle with the Immigrants, they’re gradually claiming control of the island and redrawing the map of global communication. But panic not. No lives have been lost in the combat – only budget, time and opportunity. For this is a battle between the ‘Digital Natives’ and the ‘Digital Immigrants’ and, as technology continues to evolve at an unrelenting pace, the Natives are finally winning.

The Digital Native/Immigrant philosophy is the 2001 brainchild of US author Marc Prensky. It describes the generational switchover where people are defined by the technological culture with which they are most familiar. Digital Natives are those born into an innate new culture – native speakers of digital language. Digital Immigrants are ‘old world settlers’ that have lived through analogue and migrated to the digital world – and many have perfected an appalling ‘Digital Immigrant accent’ to prove it.


Digital Immigrants are not technophobes, but they typically struggle to adapt to hi-tech progress. They don’t speak the language – and it’s a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, many of today’s business leaders and strategists are indeed Digital Immigrants who use outdated vocabulary and techniques to communicate with a population that speaks an entirely new language. Sound familiar? That’s because, in pharma, it is.


Prensky’s native concept provides useful context to the current challenges facing pharmaceutical companies in Europe. According to Professor Brian Smith’s well-known musings on the evolution of pharma, the industry is still struggling to adapt to a new world; and digital lies at the heart of the problem. A more recent PMLiVE study highlighted ‘unclear strategy’ as pharma’s biggest digital challenge. The Digital Futures 2014 survey revealed that digital strategy is believed to be the industry’s biggest issue this year, and that, once again, regulations are identified as a major barrier to progress. Significantly, the study showed that gaining internal buy-in for digital marketing remains a huge challenge.


The ‘buy-in’ issue is a strong indicator of the Native/Immigrant struggle that pervades pharma. A collective lack of familiarity with digital, particularly at the ‘treacle layer’ of middle management (where new ideas can often become stuck), is a prevalent problem that often holds up progress and stifles innovation. But it also highlights a digital language barrier that, unless addressed, will stimulate a growing disconnect between pharma and its customers. Why? Because the Natives aren’t coming, they’re already here.


We all know that in the consumer world, digital engagement has long since progressed from being the new black. But the metamorphosis has happened in healthcare too. Recent research from LBi Health hails 2014 as the Year of the Digitally Native HCP. Calculations estimate that, for the first time, the number of UK doctors that have qualified since the Internet went mainstream outweighs those who trained during the analogue era.


Pharmaceutical marketing has reached a tipping point where the majority of HCPs rely on digital interaction. Moreover, like patients, their expectations of a multichannel experience are being set by major consumer brands like Apple and Amazon. Digital is not the new black, it’s the new normal. But to optimise it, pharma must move away from unclear strategies, internal resistance and a penchant for blaming regulations.


Delivering a multichannel marketing strategy that maximises digital requires a focus on two distinct, but ultimately convergent, areas; the top-down blueprint for a digital culture, and the development of a framework at the local level that allows marketers to leverage digital at every stage of the brand planning cycle. But how do you get there? Here are seven steps to help you meet the Natives…


oneStart top-down, not brand up


Marketing is all about effecting behavioral change amongst target customers. But to thrive, pharma companies should consider some change management of their own, starting right at the very top. “The companies making strides are those where leadership teams have developed a top-down edict that their organisations must embrace digital,” says Stephen Dunn, client services director at emotive. “This then filters down to brand planning at the local level and allows senior management to critique plans to ensure they are appropriate, integrated and aligned with wider corporate strategy. In the most proactive companies, leadership is demanding change, investing in infrastructure, and ensuring that personal development plans, training and performance bonuses are all aligned. This is changing cultures and transforming companies’ digital capabilities and readiness.”


Paul Tanner, chairman at 90TEN, agrees: “Companies need to agree their digital strategy and ambitions at a corporate level. They need to ask themselves how far they are willing to push the boundaries. Are they willing to engage patients and customers on social media channels? What customer data are they happy to capture on CRM systems, and what do they plan to do with it? It’s about developing a framework and then sharing that across the organisation so that everyone understands how it works. Then, at the brand level, teams can develop multichannel strategies with the confidence that they won’t get blocked by legal, regulatory and IT departments.”

Despite this, there is still a tendency for companies to start thinking about digital at the brand strategy level, instead of first establishing how digital fits into a business as a whole.


2Build the right infrastructure


Progressive organisations are gearing up to work with digital and are putting infrastructure in place to support an overarching digital strategy. “We are seeing a welcome increase in corporate centres of digital excellence and digital brand teams,” says Natalie Newell, client director at Digitas LBi. “But the emphasis on ‘digital’ is misleading – we should be focusing on multichannel. Disciplines need to be integrated; every aspect of brand promotion should be focused around the digital interaction. That way, each engagement can be tracked and embellished to improve business. We need to stop talking about digital, online and offline; everything we do should be multichannel. This will inform how internal teams should be set up. Who is responsible for content marketing? Who is the editor-in-chief that’s making sure everything is written in the right voice and aligns with the overall strategy? This is where companies need to build infrastructure. But it requires high-level investment rather than viewing digital as a cheap commodity item.”


3Think strategy first, tactics and channels later


A common criticism leveled at companies’ marketing strategies is their propensity to put the digital cart before the horse. In the worst examples, marketers start by focusing on channels and tactics and then end up disappointed when their desired objectives fail to materialise. “Marketing should be driven by brand strategy, not channel-specific tactics,” says Paul Dixey, an independent consultant with a long history of working inside pharma. Here Paul, who is currently working within a major multinational, shares his personal views on pharma’s common digital mistakes. “Companies often concentrate on activities and deliverables; they measure on outputs rather than outcomes. For example, ‘how many iPad details did I produce this quarter’, or ‘what can I do in this particular budget cycle?’ Digital often sits in a silo and doesn’t integrate with the rest of marketing. To compound this, some marketers start off with digital tactics and try to shoehorn them into a strategy. They begin with the activity, rather than looking at the brand strategy and asking which channels and activities can help them deliver their goals.”


The industry, it seems, often focuses too much on the medium rather than the desired outcome. “Sometimes Brand Managers think about the channel or the medium first, rather than starting at the end point and working backwards. We need to strip the challenge back to its core and ask: what are our objectives? Who is the target audience and how can we engage them to change their beliefs and behaviours? From this point, the choice of medium, or combination of media, is easier to establish – and should be chosen to improve the delivery of the message,”” says Paul Tanner. “An effective digital strategy should allow us to reach more of the right people, more effectively, using less resource – creating a transformative effect.”


4Understand your customers


No marketing article would be complete without mention of ‘customer-centricity’ – a c-word that modern marketers throw around like cheap confetti. But in the multichannel era, the industry’s digital immaturity often exposes a failure to live up to the hype and put the customer at the centre of communications. “Strategy has to start with insights; who and where are your customers? How can you engage them, and what message do you want to communicate? These are classic, traditional marketing questions – but today’s customers are no longer doing traditional things. They’re not at congress or reading a journal, they’re using online communities, doing eLearning or attending online symposia. They’re collaborating over social media. They’re Digital Natives!” says Stephen. “Marketers need to understand the environment where their customers are hanging out and what channels they are using. And they need to learn how to engage with them through their chosen media, in line with needs outlined in a robust brand strategy.”


The need to be customer-centric extends beyond HCPs – it’s also vital for patient-centred initiatives such as adherence programmes and disease awareness applications. “These programmes should be crafted with the end user, not with the end user ‘in mind’ – and there’s a big difference between those two concepts,” says Paul Tanner. “Engaging patients using ethnographic research allows you to watch human interaction in a natural environment, rather than the artificial world of a focus group. Working with behavioural psychologists, you can then develop digital programmes that respond to those patient needs and deliver long-term behaviour change.”


5Don’t confuse digital with multichannel


In a world where consumers move seamlessly from one channel to another, the multichannel concept is firmly established. But in pharma old silo habits die hard. “Pharma’s current use of ‘multichannel’ is a misnomer,” says Paul Dixey. “In many places, so-called multichannel departments simply focus on digital and have no involvement in aspects like the field force or meetings and conferences. But a robust marketing strategy should indeed be multichannel; it should integrate on-and-offline activity, depending on customer requirements – in line with brand strategy.


“The most effective strategies look for constant engagement – they don’t lurch from one budget cycle to the next. Coca Cola, for example, says it no longer does ‘campaigns’, it does ‘constant engagement’. Pharma people should take a more iterative approach, measuring, adjusting and making decisions based on customer analytics – and doing this quickly – rather than benchmarking against what they did the prior year. Moreover, pharma needs to develop strategies with the customer, not the channel, at the centre. Digital channels are routes to realise a marketing strategy – not an end in themselves. The industry must become truly multichannel.”


6Collaborate


Companies need to adopt a more collaborative approach. Organisations that effectively integrate legal, regulatory, IT and digital departments – and take everyone in the brand team along the same journey – often avoid the pitfalls that can derail projects. “The sales team is an invaluable source of information on your target customers,” says Natalie. “If companies leverage that knowledge and use it to inform strategy, it becomes easier to get the most out of other channels and activities. Greater alignment across work streams can only be a positive. It’s about building a proper digital ecosystem, rather than simply putting up a website or developing an app because you think your customers might need it.


7Innovate in small steps


But progress won’t be made overnight – it requires a patient approach and long-term commitment. “Marketers need longer-term goals,” says Natalie. “Brand managers are always looking at the next year– but they need to be thinking further ahead. The most proactive will establish where they want their communications to be in three years’ time, and then start moving towards them in a step fashion. You won’t be able to do everything at once – but incremental progress can deliver significant results.”


Against the backdrop of short-term sales targets – aligned with bonus and remuneration packages – the shift to long-term planning is an anathema to pharma’s current business model. This, once again, underlines the need for a top-down strategy that redesigns operations in line with the new digital environment. Pharma’s famous lack of agility and reluctance to change does little to indicate that a huge revolution in corporate culture is just around the corner. But this does not mean that marketers cannot be innovative or attempt to push the margins.


“The best examples of innovation come where companies take a step back and think about how digital can contribute to and transform traditional activities,” says Stephen. “Digital is all-pervading – but it needs to be leveraged appropriately. The smartest marketers are those able to examine the customer experience and identify areas where digital can improve it – rather than being hung up on developing an ambitious digital strategy that, in the end, is undeliverable. Strategy is critically important, but not all channels are online. Digital can support traditional channels and improve customer experience in offline activities such as meetings and one-to-one interactions. It is in these areas where marketers may be able to push innovation.”



And so we return to that backwater village of Old Pharma to find that the Natives have not only arrived, they’re beginning to get irritated by dated marketing approaches they consider extinct. The Natives are restless. It’s time to change the model, before Apple and Google change the game altogether.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_intelligence/seven_steps_to_innovating_your_digital_strategy_599368




Seven steps to innovating your digital strategy

Tuesday 16 September 2014

NHS 'not driving' health innovation; Minister for Life Sciences acknowledges UK has more to do


Minister for Life Sciences acknowledges UK has more to do




 


NHS England logo


Minister for Life Sciences George Freeman admitted that more must to be done to improve the uptake of innovation in the NHS.


He joined pharma leaders on a panel last week discussing how regional initiatives can forge new R&D investment, collaboration and innovation in life sciences.


Freeman said, “I don’t think anyone would say the NHS is a catalyst for health innovation. We are still not good enough at adopting innovation into industry, especially within the NHS.”


The comments come just weeks after a Cancer Research UK report warned NHS cancer services in England are at a “tipping point” after efficiency savings and recent NHS reforms.


Also speaking at the London event, which was organised by comms agency Hanover, was ABPI president and Pfizer UK’s managing director Jonathan Emms.


He noted that more work is needed to utilise all medication created in the UK, as many go through the expensive clinical process but remain unused.


Emms also called for the government’s science budget to be “sustained and ring fenced” after David Cameron reportedly referred to the life sciences sector as “a jewel in the crown”.


The discussion at the event, whose speakers also included MedCity’s Eliot Forster and the Northern Health Science Alliance’s Ian Greer, repeatedly returned to the impending Scottish referendum vote and the impact independence could have on the pharma and biopharma industry.


Source PM Live http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/nhs_not_driving_health_innovation_599202




NHS 'not driving' health innovation; Minister for Life Sciences acknowledges UK has more to do

Monday 15 September 2014

Smartphone and social media adverse event project launched

The EU consortium’s members will include UK regulator the MHRA


facebook like medicineThe use of smartphone technology and social media for gathering information on suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is to be evaluated by a new European consortium.


WEB-RADR’s founding members include pharma, academics and European medicines regulators like the UK’s MHRA and it is funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative – a partnership between the EC and EFPIA.


The three-year project‘s goals include developing a mobile app for healthcare professionals and the public to report suspected ADRs to national EU regulators and investigating the potential for publicly available social media data to be used for identifying potential drug safety issues.


WEB-RADR will also make a series of recommendations on howsmartphone and social media should be used ethically and scientifically for international drug safety monitoring.


Mick Foy, group manager in the MHRA’s Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines division, said: “The growing use of smartphones and tablets by patients and healthcare professionals creates a need for reporting forms to be provided on these platforms to ensure regulators receive ADR reports that are easy to access and complete.


“Additionally the recent growth of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and the many specialist sites and blogs has given rise to many people sharing their medical experiences publicly on the internet.


“Such data sharing, if properly harnessed, could provide an extremely valuable source of information for monitoring the safety of medicines after they have been licensed.”


The project’s planned mobile app may also be used to send accurate, timely and up-to-date medicines information to patients, clinicians, and caregivers, the MHRA said.


In addition to ADRs WEB-RADR will assess social media and smartphones as tools for monitoring drug safety and will help develop new recommendations for medicines regulators and pharma on how these should be used alongside existing systems.


The MHRA has previously told pharma it wouldn’t have to ‘trawl the internet’ for ADRs, but WEB-RADR clearly signals that a more collaborative approach is on the cards – a direction of travel also pointed to by the FDA’s new open data ADR initiative in the US.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2014/september/smartphone_and_social_media_adverse_event_project_launched




Smartphone and social media adverse event project launched