Whitepaper: Revolution, Evolution Or Agile Solution
How will pharma engage with customers in a post-COVID-19 world?
In this whitepaper, we look at how the pharma industry is communicating with healthcare professionals and assess what the future holds for the pharma commercial interaction model.
As with so many sectors, the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the healthcare industry. Currently in most countries, pharma reps are off the road, hospitals are closed to non-acute patients and many health professionals have been reassigned to manage the health system’s response to the outbreak.
Never has there been a greater focus on how resources are utilized. For example, the cost of keeping a customer-facing pharma organization with 15,000 employees, each costing an average of $200k per annum, off the road for two months is in excess of $500m. A 10% shift in budget away from sales force for the whole industry could be $8bn to reinvest elsewhere.
Some see this crisis as an opportunity to rethink and reset both the industry’s customer engagement model and its image. Will COVID-19 be a turning point for pharma, perhaps pushing it to truly embrace multi-channel or become digital-first? How will this change the nature of pharma’s relationships with its customers? Can a single commercial model meet the needs of all countries and customer segments, or will a more flexible solution be needed?
To address some of these questions, the Health Division of Kantar has conducted a 360-degree assessment of the future – or several potential futures – of the pharma commercial model. This includes the findings of a global survey of more than 8,500 healthcare professionals across nine key markets, the views of senior industry leaders, and a meta-analysis of industry commentary, asking what pharma organizations need to do to flourish in a post-COVID-19 world.
