Columbus, Ohio – A recent article from Medical Marketing and Media (MM&M) analyzes what has been on all of our minds in the last 6-9 months: What will pharma’s response be to so many consumer brands crossing over into healthcare? And as MM&M summarizes, it is only a trending positively.
Looking back, it is no secret that pharma companies have felt the responsibility to always be the holistic solution to everything a patient needs along any treatment journey. Bringing solutions in areas they may not be experts in, but feeling the need to fill many gaps and wear many hats.
However, these new entrants into healthcare, such as Amazon and Google, are bringing needed solutions and proven tools that enhance the patient’s experience and in turn, take the burden off the drug maker.
These consumer brands also have vast experience and success in consumer centricity – designing solutions that are as individual as the people that use them. This is driving the urgency for pharma companies to step back and rather than reinvent the wheel, become more open to working with, rather than against, some of the best consumer brands. It also helps chip away at the never-ending goal pharma companies have to become more patient-centric.
"Given the complexity of such solutions, we will see pharmaceutical companies adopting global digital therapeutics platforms that are already approved by their legal [departments]...so brand teams can have all those capabilities pre-approved out of the box.” - Amir Kishon, CEO and Co-founder of RMDY Health
You can read more about this originally reported by MM&M as well as several recent success stories from the likes of Celgene, Novartis and AstraZeneca, here.
Why This Matters –
This theme and the stories within the MM&M article are a great example, once again, at how consumer brands are helping not only shift expectations but also bringing new proven solutions for pharma brands to take advantage of what already works. The partnership, for example, between Novo Nordisk and Sempre Health can increase adherence and lower costs – a win for both Novo and the diabetic patient.
One of my favorite quotes in the article is from Joe Shields, senior director, global strategy and innovation at AstraZeneca – “Pharma has to get over itself as, 'We're here to take care of the total patient.' I don't think that's a credible statement that they can make,"…"The intention is good. I just think pharma is a part of the ecosystem. And [it's] trying to assume more roles in the ecosystem without permission."
As these consumer brands continue to forge ahead in ways that haven’t even been discovered, it is exciting to watch drug makers embracing innovation and truly building consumer-first centric programs and bringing them to the market.
You can read more about these shifting expectations and more trends in our latest 2018 Trend Report series here.
