The Need for New Promotional Models

Abstract

The increasing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry is widely described and attributed to constantly rising R&D-costs, decreasing R&D-productivity, increased generic competition and healthcare reforms in almost all Western countries trying to enforce price cuts and restrictions in reimbursement. With the changing healthcare environment, the focus in Pharma marketing needs to adapt to new stakeholders needs as payers and patients are becoming more actively involved and are requesting a higher health outcome. We believe that, given the increasing complexity due to the changing healthcare environment, a broader perspective on ROI helps to cope with rising uncertainty and propose a simple, illustrative formula to visualise the effects of the different actions that can be taken into account. We discuss the effects of targeted therapies, health education programmes and early commercialisation.