PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING and HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATIONS
This is not only our business at RiverSide Selection – it’s our life.
But what is this industry that’s either referred to as Pharmaceutical Marketing, Healthcare Communications or PharmaComms? Simply put it’s the business of advertising or otherwise promoting the sale of pharmaceuticals or drugs, and raising awareness of healthcare issues. It's also becoming more and more about informing patients about their conditions, and helping them to effectively manage their condition through awareness campaigns. There is likely to be more and more need to speak directly to the general public about the benefits of complying with their therapy treatment, and the Pharmaceutical industry is starting to get to grips with the communications issues surrounding this.
The marketing of medication has a long history. The sale of miracle cures, many with little real potency, has been going on since the age of the cave man and the marketing of legitimate non-prescription medications such as pain relievers and allergy medicines has always been common. Mass marketing of prescription medications was rare until recently because doctors made the selection of the drugs that they were allowed by the NHS to prescribe, and therefore mass marketing was seen as a waste of marketing budget resources.
Doctors & other physicians are the most important players in pharmaceutical sales because they write the prescriptions that determine which drugs will be used on each patient, so influencing the prescription-writers is the key to a pharmaceutical company’s success. This process has historically been carried out by large pharmaceutical sales forces, some of which have grown to sizes of tens-of-thousands around the world. Sales reps called upon doctors regularly, providing information and free drug samples to the prescription-writers, and this is still the approach today: however economic pressures on the industry are causing pharmaceutical companies to re-think the traditional route to the prescription-writers.
The pharmaceutical companies are using processes to influence the people who influence the doctors as well as the doctors themselves. These campaigns include channels such as self-influence through desk-based research i.e. the Internet; peer influence; direct interaction with pharmaceutical companies; patients and patient groups; and also insurance companies.
This is where our business kicks in because the people who implement these campaigns (or programmes as they are sometimes called) are the advertising or communications agencies. There are many different disciplines and spin-off disciplines involved in the healthcare communications process and we will attempt to describe them all here.
JULY 2010; MAJOR NHS REFORMS ANNOUNCED BY THE CONSERVATIVE/LIBERAL DEMOCRAT GOVERNMENT
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has unveiled a proposal to radically shake up the NHS that aims to cut costs by £20bn by 2014.
The reorganisation will see England's 35,000 GPs taking a far greater role in commissioning services for their patients. They will be in control of £80bn of taxpayers' money and will need to form consortiums by 2013. There will be no opportunity to opt out of the system.
In turn, both strategic health authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts (PCTs) would be phased out: 10 SHAs will be cut by 2012; 150 existing PCTs by 2013; and up to 30,000 management positions could be eliminated.
The government also announced plans to change the way the NHS reimburses pharmaceutical manufacturers, noting it will "move to a system of value-based pricing".
Lansley said the sweeping changes are to end the "old command and control" regime brought in by Labour. Chief executive of the King's Fund healthcare think-tank, Chris Ham, said: "It is a very radical programme. We have never seen anything like this since the inception of the NHS in 1948."
Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused Lansley of a "U-turn of epic proportions" by "ripping-up" the coalition agreement on the NHS. He said: "This reorganisation is the last thing the NHS needs just now. It needs stability not upheaval."
Lansley's white paper has sparked anger from unions and some doctors. Analysts have said it could herald the "denationalisation of healthcare services in England".
The plans only apply to England, where the NHS employs 1.3 million people. Although the NHS budget is protected, savings still need to be made to fund increasing demands from an ageing population and to pay for new treatments.
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