A growing number of interrelated stakeholders (SHs) are gaining decision-making power in the health-care market. Pharmaceutical companies are still focusing most of their resources on a single SH group, prescribers. The lack of a systematic understanding of the influence of relationships between all SH groups has resulted in sales and marketing activities, which fail to address the issues pharmaceutical companies are faced with, such as low levels of public trust and decline in physician access. This paper presents a systematic approach, explaining what practical steps a pharmaceutical company can take to gather, map and act upon influence relationship information.
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