Achieving Launch Excellence in Asia-Pacific Transcript ... - IMS Health
Achieving Launch Excellence in Asia-Pacific Transcript ... - IMS Health
Achieving Launch Excellence in Asia-Pacific Transcript ... - IMS Health
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market<strong>in</strong>g; Awareness, Accessibility and Affordability. Let me just quickly cover<br />
these one by one.<br />
Certa<strong>in</strong>ly. You mentioned awareness as be<strong>in</strong>g the first of the three.<br />
Yes, Awareness. MNCs need to actually create the market for their drugs by<br />
educat<strong>in</strong>g patients and physicians on the benefits and value of this medic<strong>in</strong>e over<br />
others, and as mentioned before, all stakeholders. To do this, they need a<br />
thorough understand<strong>in</strong>g of disease states, therapeutic options and the potential<br />
fall-out of non-compliance. Innovative outreach programmes are needed such as<br />
key collaborations, sponsorship of a family network support, language translation<br />
and so on.<br />
And the second A, which is Accessibility?<br />
Accessibility to medic<strong>in</strong>es (<strong>in</strong> terms of healthcare <strong>in</strong>frastructure) is a major<br />
challenge as there are substantial variations <strong>in</strong> availability between say urban<br />
and rural environments <strong>in</strong> emerg<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Asia</strong>n markets. Companies, therefore, need<br />
to pay particular attention to local access to diagnosis, prescrib<strong>in</strong>g & dispens<strong>in</strong>g<br />
stations and distribution channels to ensure their products are economically<br />
supplied, targeted accurately and get to market where there are access<br />
challenges.<br />
I would suppose relationship build<strong>in</strong>g would be a critical component of<br />
their strategy?<br />
Actually, no not necessarily . Sometimes quite the opposite <strong>in</strong> emerg<strong>in</strong>g markets,<br />
<strong>in</strong> fact.<br />
Oh really?<br />
Yes. Companies need to realise that relationship-sell<strong>in</strong>g is not always go<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
work as well <strong>in</strong> these emerg<strong>in</strong>g markets, where the local manufacturers will have<br />
the relationship advantage. They need to be prepared to prove their products<br />
value over local therapies through <strong>in</strong>-country cl<strong>in</strong>ical trial data, which may<br />
require additional <strong>in</strong>vestment.<br />
Yes, I can see how that will be a major difference to market<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> their<br />
established markets. And the third A, I am guess<strong>in</strong>g, would be<br />
Affordability.<br />
That’s exactly it. Naturally pric<strong>in</strong>g is a concern <strong>in</strong> any market but it is<br />
particularly sensitive <strong>in</strong> APAC, where <strong>in</strong>flation, GDP growth, ris<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>comes and<br />
elevated expectations make price a crucial buy<strong>in</strong>g decision. GlaxoSmithKl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong><br />
India is a prime example of a company operat<strong>in</strong>g a local pric<strong>in</strong>g strategy across<br />
its portfolio. In Ch<strong>in</strong>a, we see different pric<strong>in</strong>g strategies between urban and<br />
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