Pharma companies sell their products by representing them to doctors through medical representatives (MRs) and generating prescriptions. These traditional MRs remain the mainstay of a pharma company’s business generation process, even with the emergence of newer modes of connection between healthcare providers and pharma companies, such as digital and omnichannel platforms. A safe estimate of a representative’s role in the industry over a five-year period would still emphasise the importance of the repesentative, despite accounting for the projected growth of newer channels. However, this balance could be disrupted if regulatory changes, like the rapid genericisation of the market in India, were to occur.

Despite the current and future significance of an MR’s role, the quality of the average MR has been rapidly declining – a sentiment shared by both pharma executives and healthcare professionals (HCPs). While this decline may have started a few years back, COVID-19 acted as a catalyst, exacerbating the situation. This article explores various aspects related to the issue of MR quality and proposes potential solutions.

Increasing career options for graduates with undifferentiated degrees

Traditionally, graduates with degrees in B.Sc, B.Com, and D.Pharm would join as MRs. The profession also saw an influx of B.Pharm graduates due to the rapid growth in the number of pharmacy colleges. Previously, the MR position was considered one of the better career options for these undifferentiated graduates. However, this is no longer the case. Several changes in the business environment have depleted this pipeline for the pharmaceutical industry. Firstly, there is an increasing number of locally available career options such as banking/finance, IT, industry, telecom, consumer durables sales and service, and modern trade. These relatively newer job opportunities often offer comparable or even better pay than an MR job. For example, a telecom or consumer durables sales and service job may offer a similar starting salary to that of an MR. Consequently, the MR job is no longer the most financially rewarding option for these graduates. Secondly, pharma companies have significantly expanded their field force over the last decade, resulting in a demand-supply issue. In some cases, it takes up to 60 days to fill an MR vacancy in Mumbai, the most populated metro in India.

The youth’s changing priorities

Nowadays, the younger generation doesn’t solely prioritise salary when choosing a career path. The level of social acceptance associated with a job plays a more significant role in their decision-making process. Historically, an MR’s job was never highly valued socially. However, with the prevalence of social media, its impact on society has increased. Yet, a social media post for a position like ‘Executive – Customer Services’ with a modern trade retailer or telecom operator receives a more favourable social response, even if the role primarily involves customer service at a mall. In comparison, an MR’s job faces challenges regarding social acceptance.

Lack of respect and importance within organisational structure

There is a growing dissatisfaction among reps regarding their lack of respect and importance within the organisational structure. This issue hinders the industry’s ability to attract suitable candidates through positive word-of-mouth publicity.

Lack of proactiveness by large pharma companies in creating awareness about pharma-selling careers in relevant social/academic circles

Established large companies recruit only about 10-12 per cent of positions through campus recruitment of freshers. Usually, MR aspirants start their careers with smaller companies, spending approximately a year there before applying to larger firms. The ad-hoc selection process and limited resources of smaller companies often result in low-quality recruitment and induction procedures.

Most often, MR candidate sourcing occurs through line managers’ contacts in the field. Line managers almost always prefer experienced candidates over freshers, believing that an experienced rep will become productive sooner. However, relying on a pool of MRs working with smaller companies for 85 to 90 per cent of recruitment is a major limiting factor for quality recruitment, even for larger companies. One reason why large companies do not recruit from campuses or hire freshers is the higher attrition rate within the first six months of joining the profession. Many new MRs find alternative career options or become disenchanted with the MR job. Unfortunately, large pharma companies have not intervened at the campus level. Only a negligible number of companies conduct campus-level orientation programs for graduating students, and campus recruitment drives by larger companies are infrequent.

Job vs career: While a large portion of the top positions in pharma marketing/sales hierarchies are held by individuals who started as MRs, there is still a lack of visibility among reps regarding career progression and associated salaries. Improving visibility in this regard can incentivise reps to make conscious efforts toward better quality work.

Training-related issues

Classroom training: In an effort to avoid wasting money and efforts on training MRs who might leave early, pharma companies prefer to invest in training only after a rep has spent six months on the job. As a result, some MRs work in the field for as long as six to nine months without proper classroom training. This low-quality fieldwork has a lasting impact on the MR’s confidence and work orientation.

On-the-job training: Area Sales Managers (ASMs), responsible for the on-the-job training of MRs, are also experiencing a decline in quality due to several reasons:

• Lack of clarity on work expectations from ASMs: In terms of job expectations for ASMs, measurable strategy execution parameters and direct customer management are becoming more important than softer parameters like coaching MRs on scientific skills, communication, and selling techniques. This shift leads to neglect in coaching MRs on in-clinic performance parameters. You get what you ask for.

• ASMs selected from the same pool of MRs with inherent quality issues: The MR to ASM promotion process often prioritises fieldwork quantity, performance track record, and customer relationships over quality in-clinic performance, communication, and scientific flair. This leads to the promotion of MRs who excel in fieldwork but lack the ability or conviction to engage doctors with scientific content or effective in-clinic communication. While fieldwork is important, these other aspects are equally crucial.

• ASMs expected to directly generate business from doctors: With the declining quality of MRs, some companies expect ASMs to directly generate business from doctors during joint calls, undermining MRs’ development and ownership of the process.

• Lack of clarity on work expectations from ASMs: In terms of job expectations for ASMs, measurable strategy execution parameters and direct customer management are becoming more important than softer parameters like coaching MRs on scientific skills, communication, and selling techniques. This shift leads to neglect in coaching MRs on in-clinic performance parameters. You get what you ask for.

• ASMs selected from the same pool of MRs with inherent quality issues: The MR to ASM promotion process often prioritises fieldwork quantity, performance track record, and customer relationships over quality in-clinic performance, communication, and scientific flair. This leads to the promotion of MRs who excel in fieldwork but lack the ability or conviction to engage doctors with scientific content or effective in-clinic communication. While fieldwork is important, these other aspects are equally crucial.

• ASMs expected to directly generate business from doctors: With the declining quality of MRs, some companies expect ASMs to directly generate business from doctors during joint calls, undermining MRs’ development and ownership of the process.

Gender inequality

Although a large number of female candidates are choosing to become MRs, not all companies actively select them. Despite HR and organisational policies encouraging improved gender equality, many line managers tend to avoid hiring female candidates. Reasons often cited include concerns about future maternity leave and a perceived softer approach expected from female reps under sales pressure. While senior management recognises the superior communication abilities of female reps, resistance at lower-level functions is depriving the profession of this abundant talent. Increased participation of women in the profession would not only bring about positive qualitative change but also aid in cultural transformation within the industry.

Activity-engagement-based selling models

As activity/customer engagement-based selling expands, MRs are able to manage business without relying solely on classical in-clinic processes. This reduces the reps’ dependence on delivering a strong scientific pitch or executing marketing communication within a doctor’s cabin.

Lack of consistency/sharpness in product promotion

Frequent changes in marketing communications and a lack of sharpness in strategies discourage MRs from settling into a consistent working pattern. Strategies and communications are often changed before reps have the opportunity to gain comfort and proficiency with them.

Rollout meetings for strategies and new launches often focus on leadership addresses and high-level strategic pitches, leaving little time for reps to understand and practice scientific and marketing communications.

COVID impact

Reduced access offered by healthcare providers (HCPs) to reps during the COVID-19 pandemic led MRs to accept compromised situations for meeting with doctors. This included conducting calls in parking lots, elevators, and patient waiting areas. The acceptance of such compromised settings by MRs has led HCPs to continue these methods of granting visits to reps. However, these compromised settings do not encourage MRs to carry out their work in the desired manner, resulting in a loss of overall quality and approach to work.

What can the industry do to remedy this?

1. Improve reliance on campus/freshers recruitment. Conduct orientation programs and provide short training for potential candidates before selection.

2. Provide training to reps as soon as possible after they join the organisation.

3. Increase the starting level salaries of MRs to make the profession more attractive compared to other career options.

4. Give strong emphasis on scientific flair and communication skills during the MR to ASM promotion process.

5. Recruit more female MRs. Facilitate maternity leave and provide support for line managers to better manage female reps’ absence during maternity leave.

6. Establish stability in promotional approaches, strategies, and tactics. Minimise frequent changes.

7. Maintain a reliance on the classic in-clinic process for business generation, even with the growing trends in engagement, doctor dispensing, and digital approaches.

8. Allocate adequate time for MRs to understand and practice communication during brand launches and quarterly campaign meetings.

9. Foster respect for reps and create a positive internal organisational environment. Reps who feel safe and have high self-esteem will be more assertive in their customer interactions.

(The author has 30 years experience in Domestic Formulation Sales, Marketing and Business management)

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GSK announced a partnership with Amitabh Bachchan to raise awareness about shingles, a painful condition that affects one out of three adults above the age of 50 years.

The campaign film captures the agonising pain caused by shingles and its debilitating impact on the people living with it. It gives an important message that it is possible to protect ageing adults against this pain through vaccination.

Commenting on the partnership, Bachchan said, “Shingles is known to be painful and thus certainly a setback to senior citizens. For prevention against shingles, I recommend the senior citizens to talk to their doctors.”

Shingles are caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. The virus remains inactive in the body after a person recovers from it. When the immunity of the body weakens, it re-activates to cause shingles. More than 90 per cent of Indians by the age of 50 years have this virus in their body and are vulnerable to shingles.

Dr Rashmi Hegde, Medical Director, GSK, said, “Amitabh Bachchan has been the face of several disease and vaccination awareness campaigns before, and his support has motivated people to take the required action to prevent these diseases. Today, India’s ageing population is rising, and we need to make them aware of diseases such as shingles which can impact their quality of life. We believe this will persuade more people to talk to their doctors about protecting themselves or their loved ones from shingles.”

The film has been conceptualised and executed by Lowe Lintas. Commenting on the creative insight for the film, Sagar Kapoor, Chief Creative Officer (Global Brands), Lowe Lintas said, “Our challenge was to find a way to ‘show’ the unbearable pain of shingles, a sensation that can only be ‘felt’. That is why we have made use of imagery such as sharp nails piercing the body or a person getting electric shocks. We do not want to scare people, but we want to make them aware that shingles can be extremely painful, and it can be prevented.”

The video will be released on multiple platforms such as YouTube, Television, Print and other social media.

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Indegene announced that it will be expanding its partnership with ConTIPI Medical, a provider of non-surgical and disposable solutions for women with various pelvic floor dysfunctions, to bring a new device to the market.

ConTIPI’s ProVate is a ready-to-use device that is inserted vaginally by the user thanks to an easy-to-use applicator, very similar to a menstrual tampon. The device has a 510(k) clearance from the FDA for marketing in the US and has been granted the CE mark for marketing in Europe.

ConTIPI Medical’s mission is to help women suffering from pelvic organ prolapse (POP). The US FDA states that POP occurs when the pelvic floor’s tissues and muscles can no longer support its organs which causes a drop or prolapse of the pelvic organs.

ConTIPI’s expanded agreement with Indegene includes several services across the commercialisation process, including sales, PRMA (pricing, reimbursement and market access), medical affairs, medical communications, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, marketing and commercial operations support. Indegene will work with ConTIPI to drive revenue and ensure predictable cash outflow. Using proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and health care provider (HCP) data to expertly segment and target HCPs, Indegene helps clients deploy efficient curated sales and marketing strategies. The algorithm can learn from HCP interactions and adapts in real-time to deliver content that ultimately drives a change in the prescribing behaviour.

Capital IP Investment Partners and Ghost Tree Partners have invested in helping ConTIPI Medical to bring this new technology to the market. Bourne Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to ConTIPI Medical.

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Venus Remedies has received marketing authorisations for its generic cancer drugs from Uzbekistan and Palestine. The marketing approval for Carboplatin in Uzbekistan and Docetaxel and Irinotecan in Palestine will help the company to expand its footprint in Central Asia and Middle East.

Venus Remedies is expected to launch these drugs in the two countries in the next financial year.

Dr Manu Chaudhary, Joint MD, Venus Remedies said that the marketing authorisations would help Venus Remedies further strengthen its oncology portfolio and improve its presence in the oncology space.

“The two markets offer a great opportunity to us and we are aiming at capturing a sizeable share in these markets through the three cancer drugs in the very first year of their launch. We will continue to invest in our generic drug portfolio and expand to new geographies,” said Chaudhary.

The company is contributing substantially in the oncology segment across the globe through its wide array of key products, which include Docetaxel, Paclitaxel, Gemcitabine, Oxaliplatin, Bortezomib and Pemetrexed.

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 Indegene, a digital-first, life sciences commercialisation company announced the launch of metaverse capabilities to support life sciences organisations with a variety of use cases, including health care provider (HCP) interactions, HCP education, and patient education.

A statement from the company said, “Indegene’s domain expertise will provide life sciences organidations a foundation for navigating the complexity of this emerging technology and the flexibility to create tailored virtual worlds. Using these, life sciences organizations can foster immersive healthcare experiences, like interactions with HCPs in a virtual medical congress, meeting for a virtual educational lecture, or facilitating interactions in a virtual patient hub.”

“Life sciences organisations are looking to reimagine healthcare interactions and be ahead of the curve. Providing new ways to connect, educate, and lead transformation using virtual and augmented reality can help solve some of their key business challenges. We are excited to bring to our clients the ability to create immersive experiences to aid seamless and richer engagements with HCPs and patients. Indegene’s metaverse capabilities to design highly personalised virtual worlds, coupled with our experience and deep domain expertise, enables life sciences companies to be future ready,” said Gaurav Kapoor, Executive Vice President, Indegene.

“Metaverse has the potential to be a game changer in the education industry. Its intrinsic nature opens the door for a new dimension of how knowledge can be shared and measured”, said, Gustavo Kesselring, Vice President, External Affairs, at IFAPP Academy. “In the near future, its gamification features can be used to transform the way we have taught and evaluated for more than a hundred years, and the early adopters will benefit the most.”

Indegene is a member of the Metaverse Standards Forum, a cross-industry forum designed to foster cooperation and interoperability standards for an open metaverse.

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Torrent Pharma recently unveiled its 12-week-long campaign across TV and digital. With this new campaign #BeShelcalStrong the pharma company announces the entry of its brand Shelcal 500 – a calcium supplement – as an over-the-counter (OTC) calcium supplement brand. The campaign also aims to raise awareness about the importance of fulfilling one’s calcium needs.

As a part of the campaign, Torrent Pharmaceuticals has added a highly interactive calcium calculator on the website, www.shelcal.com that will calculate the approximate daily dietary calcium intake for the user, meeting 100 per cent RDA of calcium. Based on the analysis, consumers can make an informed decision. In addition to this consumers can connect via toll-free number 18002020240 to seek assistance and resolve calcium-related queries.

The #BeShelcalStrong TVC aims to address the aforementioned lack of dietary calcium in women by educating them to pay heed to their exhaustion and listen to their aching bones, especially after they turn 40. By depicting an everyday, relatable instance of two friends on a morning walk, the film further highlights the need to supplement one’s diet with Shelcal 500 daily.

With its composition of 500 mg Calcium and 250 IU of Vitamin D₃, Shelcal 500 helps optimise calcium absorption, increases bone density, improves muscle strength and helps boost immunity. The calcium is sourced from natural ingredients like oyster shell, having good absorption/bioavailability in the body.

Furthermore, Shelcal500 is a consistent market leader in the Rx category, with a market share currently at ~43 per cent that continues to rise. And going OTC will see Shelcal further increase its market share substantially in the consumer healthcare segment.

Click here to watch the film

Aman Mehta, Director at Torrent Pharmaceuticals said, “With Shelcal’s entry into OTC, the brand is poised to become the largest calcium supplement brand in India. Via this campaign launch, we wish to encourage consumers to take calcium supplements regularly to make up for their dietary deficiencies. #BeShelcalStrong is a strong value proposition that intends to not only build on Shelcal’s brand awareness but also educate people about calcium’s importance to their diet, which in turn can positively affect their quality of life.”

Amal Kelshikar, Executive Director at Torrent Pharmaceuticals, “According to data, 40.6 per cent of Indians are calcium-deficient, while 79 per cent of Indians are Vitamin D-deficient*. Moreover, while RDA recommends 1000 mg/day of calcium, 1 out of every 2 Indians consume less than 50 per cent of the suggested range*. Thus, by taking Shelcal 500 to OTC while presenting a relevant, relatable and engaging campaign that is driving awareness about how critical it is to complete one’s calcium requirements, Torrent Pharma is actively endeavouring to bridge the gap between consumers and a healthy, active lifestyle.”

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Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), the Hyderabad based subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), through its division Human Biologicals Institute, launched its first set of virtual medical representatives, an alternative to facilitate physician’s interface in form of eMOz i.e. a virtual realm where e-reps can connect with doctors and foster digital relationship.

A company statement informed, “eMOZ is a cutting edge and promising tool for information sharing. eMOz have inbuilt capabilities to provide constant update on specific needs of the physicians, thus fostering meaningful, tangible, and enduring gains. eMOz will enable complete stakeholder management on a virtual platform by providing detailed access to products and services. This will reduce several entry barriers while enhancing the cost efficiency. eMOz will eventually be acquiring AI avatars of sales representatives to interact and assist physicians in one of its kind experiences. eMOz will provide credible solutions digitally for better patient care by offering greater convenience to the physicians and save their precious time.”

Dr K Anand Kumar, MD, IIL said “This generation of healthcare professionals are quite open for digital channels of communication, and we envision to provide an engaging digital experience to our customers while focussing foremost on covering untapped markets”.

Dr Santosh Kumar Mishra, Senior Obstetric and Gynaecologist from Sanjita Maternity Care & Hospital, Bhubaneswar (Odisha) who interacted through eMOz and placed an order as well, said, “There has been a huge emergence of various digital channels in our life post pandemic, experiencing something like eMOz from Indian Immunologicals Limited is unique and interesting. It is more convenient than some of the usual drop-in interactions.”

“While in-person rep visits still hold value, eMOz avatars will accentuate digital value perception among all stakeholders”, said Shakul Srivastava, VP, Human Health business.

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Branding, as a terminology, was mostly known in the B2C industry, where marketing was considered important to ensure good market shares through brand choices by consumers. It was assumed that price, rationality, and relationship were more important in the B2B industry, and hence there was no need for branding. However, in the recent past, branding is gaining importance and becoming a trend in the B2B industry too. Statistics showed that over the past five years, 86.7 per cent have seen an increase in spending on brand investments of their organisations.

Yet, who would imagine that a highly specialised service industry like a ‘Contract Research Organisation (CRO)/ Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO)’ that partners with the life sciences industries in discovery, development and manufacture would resort to branding too?

CRO as the B2B service provider for pharma

◆ The need to adopt the right branding and marketing strategies
The CRO industry, as we know, started to take shape in 1980-90s, when the emergence of a regulatory framework for the pharma market began. With drug discovery becoming a very expensive affair in years to come, increasing failures of drug candidates, and technology specialisation in every activity gaining rapidly, there was a natural expansion of then-existing contract research companies to offer multiple services in the drug discovery process.

Today, the CRO industry is quite fragmented, including more than 1000 organisations; and the global contract research market in 2021 is valued at around $53.2B and growing. Fro outsourcing 40-45 per cent of their activities to CROs, the pharma industry is expected to increase this to 60 per cent in the future, according to some reports. In such a growing and fragmented market, getting differentiation out and making the industry ‘notice’ the service brand and its purpose becomes critical to sourcing business.

Moreover, the world has become smaller, with outsourcing happening across geographies. The ability to look up for the right partner on the internet, study their activities, reviews from others add to the need to ensure that each CRO puts their best image forward through clearly defined brand values and purpose. And not just for the sake of image, but for the sake of demonstrating the added value that the company can bring to the market.

With a boom in life sciences, the emergence of novel biological targets, therapeutic modalities, and a whole new area of drug discovery, research programs have greater complexity and uncertainty. As a result, pharma companies are looking for the right partners with the necessary expertise, speed of delivery, technology and aligned with their purpose. Branding provides that opportunity to bring this to the table.

Aragen’s Branding brings life to the brand!

Aragen Life Sciences, formerly known as GVK Biosciences, is a trusted R&D and manufacturing partner to the global life sciences industry. Right from ‘concept to commercial’, Aragen helps transform ideas into solutions for better health.

Entering the 20th anniversary of the company, GVK Biosciences metamorphosised to Aragen Life Sciences, with a complete branding exercise to ensure that the company is well on track to consolidate its leading global CRO/CDMO position and be a market leader within a couple of years.

The rebranding of GVK Biosciences to Aragen was undertaken to ensure that company reflected a seamless amalgamation of the collaborative movement of partnerships to enable innumerable possibilities for better health.

The Brand Promise

During the exercise, the following key pointers were taken into account to arrive at the Brand Promise:
◆ Excellence Drivers
◆ Value Differentiators
◆ Brand Personality
◆ Brand Positioning
◆ Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP)

With Aragen, a new brand identity has been unveiled, an inspiring purpose, and a promise to customers: ‘Together Ahead’.

The new identity embodies the brand promise, Together Ahead.

Since trustworthy partnerships are at the core of a CRO/CDMO business, this brand promise is apt.

The logo and colour

The seamless amalgamation is perfectly indicated in the symbol of Aragen, ‘AURA’, which has a perfect blend of blue and orange colours that signifies possibilities of science for life and better health. The AURA bespoke its ambitious yet understated, resilient approach to serving its client while encompassing the agility within the organisation, a hallmark of the brand personality.

The colours evoke Aragen’s brand purpose, “In every molecule is the possibility for better health”. Deep blue conveys the possibilities of science, and vibrant orange symbolises life and better health.

The new mark now embodies the brand promise, Together Ahead. The seamless coming together of two forms and their collaborative movement represent partnerships that ignite better health possibilities.

With this renewed energy and focus on the strong employee base, Aragen Life Sciences stands strong to continue to serve its existing and new customers across the globe, with a promise to work with its partners and make them successful in the race for good health.

The renewed zeal and focused vision that Aragen achieved after rebranding as Aragen Life Sciences has enabled Aragen to share its long term collaborations with several global clients. One such example is the multi-year partnership with the leading crop science organisation FMC Corporation. The other client collaboration during 2021 include Skyhawk Therapeutics. In July 2021, Aragen Life Sciences collaborated with Skyhawk Therapeutics to develop novel small molecule therapeutics that target some of the words’ most intractable diseases. Aragen also expanded its partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim for integrated up-scaling of compounds for larger pre-clinical studies. The scope of work also includes Biology screening of appropriate chemical moieties to drive decision making with speed and accuracy is also included in the partnership.

In biologics, Aragen is advancing downstream and investing in a manufacturing facility in the US to offer a single seamless solution to customers who want to develop and manufacture in one place.

Aragen has over 3,000 employees, out of which over 2,800 are scientists which includes over 400 PhDs. The company is looking forward to hiring around 400 plus employees in 2021-22 to meet its growth plans.

This case goes to prove that B2B branding and marketing has come of age and does not entail any limitations if one has the will and the right approach.

With the world being one big marketplace and the internet being the window to this world, the drug discovery outsourcing CRO businesses will have to take the next step forward in branding and marketing, including digital marketing.

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Has the pandemic taught the importance of digitalisation to India Pharma Inc or are we only witnessing a need-based trend?

The pandemic has definitely encouraged the shift from the traditional way of working to digitalisation in all industries. Though the development in the healthcare industry is relatively slow as compared to other industries, the pandemic has helped to accelerate it. Given the burden the sudden resurgence of cases created on our healthcare system, digitalisation of healthcare services is not just the need of the hour, rather a necessity for survival and sustenance of the industry in the long haul. 

Hence, technological developments such as telemedicine, virtual medical care etc. are likely to remain crucial for the healthcare segment in the times to come.  

How are digital technologies being implemented in pharma marketing in ways that were not explored before the pandemic?

The advent of digital technologies has introduced several path-breaking developments in the healthcare and pharma sector. These include: 

• • • Online patient consultation 
    • Contactless patient education 
    • OPD camps with a patient screening device
    • Remote product detailing 
    • Online CME Certification Courses 

How is Indigital Technologies bringing in new efficiencies to this space? Can you share a few brief case studies to elaborate on the impact of digital tools/strategies in pharma marketing?

Contactless patient education – We partnered with various pharma companies and converted 25000+ clinics across India to Wi-Fi clinics. Multiple specialities of doctors also host their personalised patient education material for their patients. Our first such initiative was to spread awareness about thyroid by converting 252 endocrinologists’ clinics into Wi-Fi Thyroid Clinics, wherein we reached out to 85,000 patients in six months’ time with 330 views/downloads per clinic with the help of our unique easy-to-use Wi-Fi enabled patient education device Kanopi. In 2020, we also tied up with another MNC to help them create Allergy Free Wi-Fi clinics and to spread awareness on various allergies faced by patients in their day-to-day life.

OPD camps via patient screening device– Risk score calculation is a tedious job. The burden of calculating these scores falls on doctors. We introduced Kribado with an objective to help doctors to screen patients for being at risk of various diseases. Kribado currently is being used by various pharma companies to conduct camps with a variety of doctor specialities like cardiologists, diabetologists, orthopaedics, ophthalmologists and gynaecologists. One of our most successful screen campaigns has been in association with a leading MNC pharma company where we assisted diabetologists with the early identification of high-risk patients, setting a healthy habit of pre-screening of all diabetes patients. Here the screening was done by the doctor’s support staff, to identify the ASCVD risk of patients in the waiting area with the help of Kribado.

AI-based patient adherence software – We launched Kyoiku AI-based personalised video prescription software that helps patients understand how to take their medications and allows healthcare providers to provide better patient care. It provides simple video instructions for more than 130K medications. 

What are the challenges faced by pharma companies in the implementation of digital technologies?

The main concerns are the culture, values and processes that are not upgraded to support the upcoming digital transformation which may lead to rejection of newer digital tools if they are not in sync with the current processes. Fear of exploring newer techniques might also cause failure.

How will digitalisation help pharma companies stay relevant in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment?

In order to stay relevant amidst the uncertain, volatile, complex and ambiguous environment, we believe that pharma companies will have to keep in mind a few considerations. They are:

• • Sticking to core values and basics not getting too ambitious
  • Understanding the new market dynamics and their impact on the overall pharma business
  • Caring for existing team members, keeping them together and valuing their contributions
  • Being flexible and adaptable to every new situation by amending existing strategy and adapting new strategy to reach existing goals

How has Indigital Technologies’ role/offerings changed since the outbreak of the coronavirus? Tell us about the impact created by your products?

During the pandemic, we have helped pharma marketers to reach out to doctors and patients through various digital technologies. We also reached out to more than three lakh doctors and 40 lakh patients and helped them during these tough times. Some of our products like Medexel and Leap to the future helped in empowering and upskilling healthcare practitioners. These are unique online continuous professional development programmes specially designed for doctors. Our digital offerings under Pixika range with automation of data collection and cloud-based input rendering also got picked up by various pharma companies for their doctor reach out branding campaigns.

What will be the future of pharma marketing in the post-pandemic era? What will be the long-term changes that we will witness?

The pandemic has encouraged the pharma industry to embrace technological advancements in terms of digital tools and solutions. Many of these changes that have been brought about by COVID-19 might remain for a longer time like telemedicine, e-pharmacy, AI-based healthcare management tools, e-learning, remote detailing, contactless patient education, contactless patient screening, healthcare mobile apps and many more. 

lakshmipriya.nair@expressindia.com 

laxmipriyanair@gmail.com

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The ankylosing spondylosis (AS) treatment landscape in India is moderately established with a few disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) available from innovator companies along with biosimilars and generics. Among the innovator and biosimilar companies, Novartis and Cadila Healthcare are the only companies to offer support to AS patients through digital channels, finds GlobalData.

According to GlobalData’s ‘Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center’, the diagnosed prevalence of AS in India is currently around 1.65 million and is estimated to grow at an annual growth rate of 2.95 per cent to reach 2.0 million in 2028.

DMARDs approved for AS treatment in India include Pfizer’s Enbrel, Merck Sharp & Dohme’s (MSD’s) Remicade, and Janssen’s Simponi, which have a strong competition from biosimilars of etanercept (Cipla, Intas Pharmaceuticals, and Reliance Life Sciences), adalimumab (Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, Hetero Labs, Cadila Healthcare, and Cadila Pharmaceuticals), and infliximab (Sun Pharmaceutical Industries).

Novartis’ secukinumab, which is marketed as Scapho in India for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, is currently being investigated in Phase III clinical trial for AS or non-radiographic axial SpondyloArthritis.

Venkat Kartheek Vale, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “With several biosimilars available in the market, it remains a great challenge for both innovator and biosimilar companies to strengthen their presence and promote their products, but Novartis and Cadila Healthcare are differentiating themselves with their digital initiatives and promoting disease and treatment awareness, respectively, to help patients make better decisions.”

GlobalData’s ‘Digital Marketing Intelligence’ identified the following digital assets for Novartis – Fightthefuse.com (unbranded website) and FightTheFuse (Facebook and YouTube accounts), whereas for Cadila Healthcare – Exemptia.com (branded website), Social.exemptia.com (branded website), and Exemptia Care (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts).

An analysis of traffic for websites over the last 12 months (May 2020 to October 2020 vs. November 2020 to April 2021) revealed inconsistent traffic to all websites. However, Novartis’ Fightthefuse.com received the highest traffic overall, followed by Cadila Healthcare’s Exemptia.com.

Taking a step further, Novartis India recently launched a campaign titled ‘This World AS Month, let’s celebrate Living AS Champions’, in collaboration with Ankylosing Spondylitis Welfare Society. As a part of this, Novartis launched videos of real-life stories of AS patients and organized webinars to enable patients to learn about AS from the doctors.

Vale concludes, “Musculoskeletal diseases like AS are often misunderstood as back pain and the growing incidence of this disease in the Indian population indicates the need for disease awareness. The unbranded initiatives by Novartis rightly target this segment of patients by offering a lot of helpful information and resources to learn and deal with AS. Adoption of similar strategies by other companies will increase the chances of bringing more patients to treatment and provides scope for overall market growth.”

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