Maximizing Prescribing Opportunities: Capitalizing on Primary and Secondary Care

Introduction

Key findings indicate that pharmaceutical promotional campaigns have to be aligned with physicians’ exact information requirements if engagement and persuasion is to be increased. Consequently, the factors that feed into the decisions prescribers make when choosing one drug over another potential competitor have to be the core component of any targeting strategy.

Scope

• Identification of the major impacting factors on physician prescribing behavior, based on results from a survey of 85 doctors in the US, Europe, Japan
• Assessment of physician perception of the effectiveness of components of the pharmaceutical promotional mix
• Investigation of prescription behavior in the epilepsy, depression, dyslipidemia, gastrointestinal ulcers and asthma primary care in the US and Europe
• Discussion of prescribing opportunities in secondary care, illustrated by reference to the arthritis and oncology sectors

Highlights

Detailing is proving to be the least effective component of a product’s promotional mix. Companies have to better address prescribers’ exact information requirements if buying is to be increased.

All physicians would normally prescribe the best-perceived treatment for an indication, despite its cost. For secondary care prescribers, however, the challenge is to justify the cost of an efficacious drug if payers disagree.

US-based physicians believe that the recent Medicare law changes will not enhance but only complicate current prescribing practice. Pharmaceutical marketers have to capitalize on any reimbursement opportunities that minimize prescribing indecision.

Reasons to Purchase

• Understand why one drug is always prescribed over another, and how promotional activity can provide the ’right’ information to the physician
• Determine the effectiveness of detailing at influencing physicians’ prescribing behavior in both primary and secondary care markets
• Identify high growth specialist disease markets that offer greater product margins for long-term portfolio growth