How to avoid divorce in your

partnerships

Di Vegh (ABPI)

NHS Partnerships Team

PM Society Awards

January 2014, London

Focus for this presentation

• The ABPI – not just the Code and the exam!

• The NHS Partnerships team

• The 4 ABPI Regional Industry Groups

• Examples of effective joint working

• What all this means for you

The ABPI: who we are

• A full service trade association supporting all

research-based pharma companies

• Recognised by UK&I Governments as the body

negotiating on behalf of the branded

pharmaceutical industry, for statutory consultation

requirements

• Work across the UK – head offices in London,

Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast – and a field team in

England

• Member companies produce 90% value of

medicines sold to the NHS

• Present the single voice of industry for small,

medium and large companies

• Office of Health Economics provide research

and reports

• The arms length body of the Prescription

Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA)

upholds the ABPI Code of Conduct

National policy drivers

• PPRS 2014

• Innovation, Health and Wealth refresh

• National Metrics Report

• Innovation scorecard

• The changing role of NICE

• Medicines optimisation guidance

• NHS Mandate

• NHS Constitution

• A Call to Action: Now or Never

Our vision

• In 2009, the ABPI piloted an Outreach Team,

which worked with the SHA on a range of

projects, e.g. medicines safety

http://www.swmit.nhs.uk/SWMSP_MedRec.htm

• This improved relationships between the NHS

and industry, demonstrating the power and

potential for better joint working agreements

• An NHS Partnerships Team was established

in 2012, led by Carol Blount, our director

– Raj Tugnet, National Manager

– Di Vegh, Regional Manager (South)

– Karen Thomas, Regional Manager (London)

– Andy Riley, Regional Manager (Midlands and

East)

– Harriet Lewis, Regional Manager (North)

Industry as an integral part of the NHS’s solution

to the delivery of better patient outcomes

NHS Partnership team priorities

• We are

• Improving the environment

• Working to reduce barriers to access and uptake at a regional level

• Supporting the implementation of the 2014 PPRS

• Taking the lead on themes from the Innovation, Health and Wealth and other key priorities,

e.g. medicines optimisation

• Demonstrating the value of medicines as an opportunity to improve outcomes rather than as

a cost pressure to commissioners and providers

• Supporting companies in the development of Joint Working projects

• We aren’t

• Promoting a particular company/ therapy area or product

•Trying to improve your market share

• Replicating or ‘competing’ with member company field teams

• The only way that the NHS can engage with pharma

Task and Finish Groups

• Each RIG established a series of Task and Finish Groups centred on

policy areas to deliver our KPIs, many leading to joint working

opportunities with different NHS organisations. They include:

• Stakeholder mapping

• AHSNs

• Formularies Good Practice Guide

• NICE Implementation

• Medicines optimisation

• Knowledge exchange

• We have >30 projects at various stages from scoping to completion

The process

Hallmarks of success

• Joint working is a part of a strategy and there are appropriate corporate structures in

place, e.g. a policy, clear flows for internal approval and certification

• Field teams understand the different types of partnership and use them correctly

• Projects clearly identify tangible ways that the NHS and the company can deliver

mutually shared objectives and patient benefit

• Bespoke materials that are adapted to meet the needs of the NHS rather than off the

shelf

• A willingness to try new ideas – moving away from measuring how often someone

lands on page 3 of a detail aid

• Testing your materials with a proper Ad Board or other methods of market research

• Building internal capability, e.g. lean, six sigma – not just hospital specialists with a

new business card

• Seeing joint working as one of many tactics to use in your armoury

• Link activity to NHS campaigns, e.g. Call to Action

• Think about what the NHS would find useful: some materials are kept for years!

Ten don’ts

1. Don’t just make it about your product. There are several thousand drugs in the BNF

and medicines are about 10-15% of the budget. What about the service?

2. Narrow value propositions that are solely trying to respond to a change in the

market, e.g. competitor activity

3. Esoteric health economic arguments that take no account of PbR or basic NHS

finance

4. Materials directed at the wrong segment: providers are fundamentally different from

commissioners

5. Models that use data that is irrelevant, not used by the NHS or produce results at

variance with NICE or those published in peer reviewed journals

6. Offers that the NHS already has, e.g. NHS Change Model

7. Projects that aren’t sustainable

8. Projects that are disguised promotion

9. A cumbersome internal sign off process

10. Not including all the stakeholders