Networked Healthcare: The Network is the Customer: Setting the Stage for Fundamental Change in Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing

Abstract

What will the marketing and sales organisation of a typical pharmaceutical company look like in 5 years' time? What activities will they be conducting? Who will be their customers? Crucially, how are they going to address the challenges the industry is facing, such as declining physician access, limited customer loyalty, downward pricing pressure and low levels of public trust? Indeed, these problems are largely the result of the business model favoured over the past two decades by the industry, namely an excessive focus on prescribers and one-way, product-centred activities. Introducing a series that proposes a new go-to-market approach, this article will explain the concept of networked healthcare, demonstrate how the industry is becoming more networked and outline the implications for pharmaceutical companies.