With the advent of Industry 5.0, the pharmaceutical oncology market is experiencing a paradigm shift. As per WHO, over 35 million new cancer cases are expected by 2050. This rise in burden calls for medical advances to the rescue- working on survival rates and enhancing patient care. The industry across the globe is also upending traditional models for treatment, patient engagement, and pricing. But the food for thought here is that- Lifesciences and pharma enterprises competing in a congested oncology sector will need to capitalize on smart technologies, relationship building, and value expectations if they aim to maximize benefits for patients and relative stakeholders like HCPs, caregivers, and payers.
Pharma players are now racing to harness data sources and digital platforms so they can engage patients, regulators, and providers more efficiently, ultimately stand out in the cut-throat oncology marketing landscape. With debates around drug costs continuing, enterprises will have to prove their value in an evolving landscape that expects transparency.
Navigating new sources of data and insight for improved patient outcomes
Pharma enterprises must develop the capability to respond to potential emerging data sources, manage them with the support of AI, and establish the partnerships necessary to do so. Beyond the business prospects, the human impact can’t be muted, as synthesizing the data to discover new therapies and even cures could affect the lives of cancer patients worldwide.
Although the addition of pharma industry data is being scraped regularly, and enterprises are navigating the methodologies on how to use it, pharma has yet to seize the full power of data-driven medicine. On the other hand, providers must come in sync as fruitful partners when it comes to the supervision of data. The excitement around big data is toned down by the challenges in transforming data extracted from EHRs, clinical trials, and wearables into practical information. Secondly, pharma insights are available in a format that is a pain to comprehend in real time. As a result, enterprises need to focus on active data sets and not static ones. As huge data sets become more congruous and AI plays a larger role, researchers will be allowed to follow patients longitudinally and obtain true clinical outcomes.
Building partnerships can be the best strategy to solve the data analytics and accessibility riddle. However several enterprises don’t possess comprehensive and organized strategies for such deals. They must take action- whether to rely on academic medical centers that already have alliances with community networks to access huge patient-level data sets, or to prioritize patient advocacy groups that favorably be allured by most firms. On the other end, some companies foster direct relations with healthcare systems to gather insights from patient data that will eventually benefit both parties.
Enterprises Can Foster New Relationships with Customers: Capitalizing on Digital Platforms
Since Pharma 4.0, caregivers and patients have expressed the desire to make interactions more effective and less time-consuming, even at the cost of privacy. These days, patients are more than willing to become partners and are into online resources like WebMD. Pharma enterprises should capitalize on this opportunity to collaborate and innovate by playing as a content supplier and a facilitator of the exchange of information.
Enterprises can nourish their bond with oncology patents by surrounding them with digital support. Securing holistic health data from wearables and mobile devices can help oncologists of healthcare organizations understand where new opportunities lie. Some of the strategic companies are opting for Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) for rational insights. They are acting as the levers of engagement initiatives (or screening programs) that are receptive to oncologists’ needs, particularly with an enhanced focus on personalized care and medicine.
Curating the appropriate digital platform strategy will indicate prioritizing who it is that the enterprise wants to engage: the patient, the physician, or the patient advocacy group. While physicians report digital fatigue, innate tools that render data input less of a burden, may indicate a pharma company’s eagerness to keep provider needs in mind, thus leveraging the company’s status.
Navigating the Volatile Provider Landscape to Gain Access to Patient Volume and Academic Medical Centers
The provider landscape has never been more volatile as the industry is adopting the Industry 5.0 revolution. The augmentation of electronic medical records and the advent of big data analytic platforms as a means of blending unstructured data sets are testing the distinction between community practice networks and academic medical centers in clinical research.
Even though academic medical centers are playing a significant role in the development of trials for fresh treatments, it is the community networks that meet most of the patient needs. Big players should step up and create an ecosystem model that brings physicians, diagnostics, pathologists, industry, and technology together. This model offers pharma a platform to identify innovative treatment combinations, secure RWE, and gather new methodologies to showcase value in contracting.
How Companies Can Demonstrate Value to Providers, Payers, and Patients
With the ever-increasing cost of innovative therapies making it the top payer’s priority list, trials with capitation models and risk-based models in oncology will rise. Amid the painful overpricing scenario, businesses want to witness value associated with specific uses. With time, as more cancer treatments shift from severe to chronic disease management, providers and payers contemplate the price argument variably as well. The inclusion of innovation further complicates pricing, as treatment that focuses specific hierarchy of patients with certain biomarkers also indicates the withdrawal patient pools for a specific drug.
Even though the complexity rises, some businesses that demonstrate value in identifying appropriate patients and how their product contributed to the positive outcome, stand tall. One key step to note here- they weaved the value factor into the R&D methodology, right from the beginning, gathered evidence that allowed the compound to pass regulatory requirements and also showcased its value.
Businesses can incorporate commercial engagement models with innovation to cater variable needs of customers
In the current oncology marketing landscape, the person-to-person sales model has become obsolete. Businesses may consider hiring account managers with greater institutional experience who can manage the network cancer center administration and structure a substantial case for the drug’s inclusion. This might call for a restructuring of the sales force.
To come up with a strategic commercial engagement model in pharma oncology marketing, enterprises need to become providers of the science and data that customers want by positioning themselves in their customer’s shoes. Hospitals, oncologists, and health systems are being heavily judged on outcomes, and those consequences get published. Patients can gather these results and come up with their own decisions about whom to pursue for treatment.
Decision makers in the industry will seek pharma commercialization models that prioritize education and service, with a proposition that’s credible, not just for the sake of advertisement. Innovative market big shots are already transforming their engagement teams to portray more like medical device representatives, who foster bonds with caregivers, nudge in on surgeries, and turn into consultants rather than sales personnel.
The market trends, especially with Pharma 5.0, call for a fundamental re-evaluation of the initiative to identify the potential that will set apart your business in this volatile oncology market. With the huge amount of data accessible for the oncology sharks, enterprises that go for the correct investments rise the ladder with greater ROI. Engagement strategies that allow enterprises to demonstrate value to payers, patients, and providers in innovative ways will reap substantial benefits for society in the future.
