Marketing Lecture 3 Updated Pharmaceutical Market Research

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Pharmaceutical Marketing ResearchDr. Taher Hamed

(1) An Introduction to Market Research

Market Research

Secondary Research

Internal Sources

• Company Accounts

• Internal Reports and Analysis

• Stock Analysis

• Retail data – Customer loyalty cards, etc.

External Sources

• Government Statistics

• Trade publications

• Commercial Data ( Commercial Chambers)

• Household Expenditure Survey

• Magazine surveys

• Other firms’ research

• Research documents – publications, journals, etc.

• Professional Market Research Agencies (IMS)

Primary Research

Market Research

• Primary Research– First hand information

– Expensive to collect, analyse and evaluate

– Can be highly focussed and relevant

– Care needs to be taken with the approach and methodology to ensure accuracy

– Types of question – closed – limited information gained; open – useful information but difficult to analyse

Market Research

• Quantitative and Qualitative Information:

• Quantitative – based on numbers – 26% of Egyptians over 60 year olds have hypertension - doesn’t tell you why, when, how

• Qualitative – more detail – tells you why, when and how!

Purpose

Market Research

• Advantages of Market Research– Helps focus attention on objectives

– Aids forecasting, planning and strategic development

– May help to reduce risk of new product development

– Communicates image, vision, etc.

– Globalisation makes market information valuable

Market Research

• Disadvantages of Market Research– Information only as good

as the methodology used

– Can be inaccurate or unreliable

– Results may not be what the business wants to hear!

– May stifle تخمدinitiative and ‘gut feeling’

– Always a problem that we may never know enough to be sure!

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Pharmaceutical Marketing Research

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Unique Aspects of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Sales • Influence of non-purchasers (Physicians-Pharmacists) on the purchasing

habits of the consumer.

• Authorization power of physicians – consumers need an authorized document to purchase a prescription drug

• Importance of the diagnosis and knowledge of diseases to identifying and classifying markets

• Professional licensing required to stock and sell pharmaceutical products

• Records of every transaction are kept that are specific to:– Patient– Physician– Product

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Definitions

• Market Research: – Determination and assessment of qualitative and quantitative

dimensions of a market

• Marketing Research: – Analysis of the effects of various marketing activities of a

company or its competitors

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Market Research

• Environmental scanning:– Physicians– Pharmacists– Pharmacies– Hospitals

• Data gathering and analysis• Influence of unique aspects of the pharmaceutical market on market

research:– Known list of entities– Knowledge-based decisions– Similarities in education and thinking (professionalization)– Availability of records for transactional activity

• Significant use of outside vendors for market research– Syndicated services– Custom services

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Questions Answered by Market Research

• Strategic Level:– What diseases or product areas should be considered for long-term

investment or Short-term investment?– Market size or potential?– Availability and utilization of therapies?– Next logical steps in therapy?– Potential market segments to be exploited:

• Disease conditions (e.g., migraine sufferers)• Dosing preferences (inhalants vs. injections vs. patches)

– Prevalence of disorder?– Shared conditions?– Potential development partners?– Potential acquisitions?

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• Clinical trial Planning:– Seasonality

– Regionality

– Specialty

• Pre-marketing Planning:– What physician specialties are important in a given therapy or

diagnosis?

– What patient characteristics are important?

– Who are our competitors in this market?

– How do our competitors promote their product?

– Are there unsatisfied portions of the market?

– How do physicians perceive a proposed product?

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• Post-marketing Monitoring:– Adverse events

– Product sales

– Patient information (medical history)

This can be critical in product defense situations! Example: Pfizer’s defense of Viagra when suits were filed alleging an increased risk of stroke.

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Types of Market Research

PeriodicSurveys

Retail Pharmacy Purchases


Hospital Purchases

Hospital Purchases

WarehouseWithdrawals


PromotionalMedia

PromotionalMedia

PhysicianPanels

PhysicianPanels

Retail PharmacyPrescriptions


Retail Pharmacy Sales


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PeriodicSurveys



• Measures the “inflow” of products from the manufacturer to the pharmacy

• OTC

• Prescription drugs

• Indirect (through wholesalers)

• Direct purchases from manufacturers

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PeriodicSurveys

Hospital Purchases

Hospital Purchases • Measures the

“inflow” of products from the manufacturer to the hospital

• OTC

• Prescription drugs

• Indirect (through wholesalers)

• Direct purchases from manufacturers

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PeriodicSurveys



• Measures the “outflow” of products from the warehouse to all purchasers

– OTC

– Prescription drugs)

• Does not reflect direct purchases from manufacturers

• Provides ability to analyze small segments of the marketplace such as zip code or territories

Can be valuable in dealing with questions of individual territory performance and potential or different selling techniques

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PeriodicSurveys Retail Pharmacy

Prescriptions


• Measures the “outflow” of prescription drugs from the pharmacy to consumers

• Most sensitive indicator of prescription product performance (factual)

• Reflects mindset of prescribers and consumer demand

• Best indicator of marketing or promotional effort effectiveness

• Data available at national and sub-national levels

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PeriodicSurveys

PhysicianPanels

PhysicianPanels

• Specialized research services to identify patient product usage along specific variables:

– Diagnosis

– Patient characteristics

– Location of visit

– Drugs used

– Action desired from drugs used

• Tracking of new prescriptions over time and monitors changes in doctor prescribing habits

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PeriodicSurveys



• Historically used for non-prescription pharmaceuticals

• Data typically collected for products of interest

• Collect unit and L.E information at the package size level

• Main use is to obtain prescription counts by product

• Used for pricing analysis and cross-tabulation analysis using data warehouses

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PeriodicSurveysPromotional

Media

PromotionalMedia

• Monitoring of detailing visits to physicians by sales representatives

• Monitoring of journal advertising

• Monitoring of direct mail advertising

• Physician sampling

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Market Research Organizations

• IMS Health

• Data-monitor Healthcare Consulting

• Frost. COM

• Reuters

• Also check out:– eyeforpharma.com

– FDA.gov

– Journal of the American Hospital Association

– AMA Drug Evaluations

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Documents

Marketing Lecture 3 Updated Pharmaceutical Market Research