Powering the Life Sciences Commercial Engine with Market Access Insights April 2017
CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. The Race for Market Access Insights has Begun 4 3. Life Sciences is Not Yet Firing on All Cylinders 6 4. Commercial Teams are Reengineering 8 5. Integrating Insights Shifts Winning Teams into High Gear 9 6. Key Takeaways 10 7. Methodology 11 8. About Zephyr Health 12
Introduction 1 In the US, over 85% of prescription drugs are reimbursed through managed care plans 1, making the role of the market access and managed markets teams in life sciences critical to the success of a brand. Market access, the process that ensures all patients in need get rapid and sustained access to a brand, at the right price, is increasingly becoming a primary focus point for biopharma companies, from research and development to commercial teams. In fact, market access can influence decision gates at the very early stages of drug development, but most importantly, it must become an integrated part of commercial launch excellence that prepares the brand for the market, and the market for the brand. A formulary win lays an excellent foundation for demand to be created for the brand, but by itself is not enough. What is critical today is a pull-through strategy from managed market, to marketing, to field sales execution, that drives demand through a combination of patient- and healthcare professional (HCP)- focused activities. This is the fully running commercial engine of life sciences. For any engine to run efficiently, however, it needs a steady supply of the right fuel in this context market access data and insights that will help prescriberfacing teams run at peak efficiency. The current challenge for life sciences is optimizing this fuel supply, as market access and commercial teams often operate in a siloed way with regards to data, market changes and insights. The teams contend with a reality of separate processes and ecosystems that prevent cohesive collaboration and block ready access to information. To have a comprehensive understanding of the market and to create a successful strategy, companies need to have appropriate insights to build a complete picture. Lance Scott President and CEO of Zephyr Health To better understand the changing dynamics between market access and more traditional commercial teams, a survey of industry leaders working in market access, medical affairs, marketing and sales roles was conducted to gauge how they intend to accelerate the commercial engine of the future. 1. PharmaExec, 2014. Managed Markets: Positioning Your Product For Success with Pull Through Strategies. Available at: http://www.pharmexec.com/managed-markets-positioning-your-product-success-pull-throughstrategies (accessed March 2017). 3
2 The Race for Market Access Insights has Begun Healthcare is unique in that data on its own is rarely valuable - the value in healthcare is when you bring data together. Baird Stiles Senior Vice President, Product Solutions, US Managed Markets, Decision Resources Group Increased focus on cost in the pharmaceutical industry means that efficacy versus the current standard-of-care is no longer enough to determine prescription habits. Ever-changing formulary status and a multitude of reimbursement models create a complex intersection of cost versus outcome for physicians each time a prescription is written. Even if your brand is in a stronger position compared to competing therapeutics, without real-time access to formulary data, there is no guarantee that the HCP will be aware of this. Thankfully, brand teams are already on the road to leveraging market access data. 68% of survey respondents said they regularly use market access insights, with 28% using it all the time and 40% leveraging this information more often than not. Just 8% of respondents said they never, or rarely, look to market access to inform sales strategy. Both market access and sales/marketing respondents agreed on this point, with 73% of both groups saying that market access teams were used regularly all of the time or more often than not as a source of insight into the various phases of the reimbursement journey. For brands seeking to maintain a competitive edge in markets with an everincreasing focus on the economics of healthcare, the results show that getting the right data, compiling it and sharing it across the organization still represents a challenge and often means that field forces are working at less than peak efficiency. Key takeaway: Field sales teams are your commercial engine. The life sciences industry recognizes that fueling them with high-performance market access insights, competitive formulary and marketplace intelligence, can be a key determinant of brand success. 4 The Race for Market Access Insights has Begun
Over 68% of pharmaceutical brands are leveraging market access insights regularly in their strategic planning. THE MOST VALUABLE INSIGHTS FOR SALES STRATEGY ARE: RELATIVE FORMULARY STATUS OF YOUR PRODUCT VERSUS COMPETITORS PAYER MIX PER ACCOUNT/TARGET FORMULARY STATUS/RESTRICTIONS OF YOUR PRODUCT SALES TEAMS ARE PRIMARILY USING MARKET ACCESS DATA TO: LEVERAGE CURRENT FORMULARY STATUS TO INFORM SALES ADVANTAGE INVESTIGATE AREAS WITH REIMBURSEMENT CHALLENGES SUGGEST KEY ACCOUNTS AS TARGET FOR MANAGED MARKETS For brands seeking to maintain a competitive edge in markets with the increasing focus on the economics of healthcare, the results show that getting the right data, compiling it and sharing it across the organization represents an important opportunity Lance Scott President and CEO of Zephyr Health The Race for Market Access Insights has Begun 5
3 Life Sciences is Not Yet Firing on All Cylinders The whole communication process can be challenging and, in some cases, may neutralize the competitive advantage a formulary change might offer Lance Scott President and CEO of Zephyr Health While life sciences companies have a clear understanding of the power of market access data as a commercial fuel, the research points to more than one blockage in the engine. According to the survey, both market access and sales/marketing professionals agreed the biggest barrier to collaboration between managed markets and sales/marketing teams is ineffective sharing of data. Overall, 40.5% of respondents see data sharing as a primary pain point, while differing strategic goals (27%), and the use of disparate tools (21.6%) are also seen as problematic. While the goal might be seamless data sharing between departments, these results demonstrate that systems are not yet in place to effectively implement such strategies. Market access data provides a level of granularity to sales representatives so that they can fully understand and act upon formulary status changes in the market, and educate providers around reimbursement considerations when making a therapeutic choice for their patient. Dynamic two-way communication and updates on formulary status and other market access considerations are vital for the data to be truly effective and for the field sales machine to fire on all cylinders. However, as seen by these survey results, the industry has some way to go to achieve effective data sharing practices. As noted by Lance Scott, President and CEO of Zephyr Health, The way communications happened historically is that leadership in market access or managed markets would deliver reports to the leadership on the brand team. Those would then be reviewed and passed on to head of sales, where once again they would be reviewed, segmented and cascaded in a trickle-down fashion until they reached the sales representatives. The whole communication process is quite cumbersome and neutralizes any competitive advantage that a formulary change might offer. 6 Life Sciences is Not Yet Firing on All Cylinders
THE BIGGEST BARRIERS TO COLLABORATION BETWEEN MANAGED MARKETS AND SALES/ MARKETING TEAMS ARE SEEN AS: DATA NOT EFFECTIVELY SHARED BETWEEN TEAMS DIFFERING STRATEGIC GOALS ACROSS TEAMS DISPARATE USE OF TOOLS THE BIGGEST GAPS BETWEEN BRAND/MARKETING AND MARKET ACCESS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE: Each team, including market access, marketing or sales, generally use their own tools, developed for their specific needs, however, those tools aren t necessarily designed to allow departments to optimally share data. Lance Scott President and CEO of Zephyr Health STRATEGIC PLANNING INTERNAL COMMUNICATION INSIGHT/DATA SHARING Key takeaway: If market access insights are the fuel, then data and insights platforms are the fuel injectors. For peak efficiency, fuel injection must be fluid and free of blockages, but siloed solutions can stall commercial engine performance. Life Sciences is Not Yet Firing on All Cylinders 7
4 Commercial Teams are Reengineering When asked what would close the gap between brand and market access, 73% of market access respondents said reorganizing sales teams to be key account management teams...while 58% of sales/marketing respondents said setting CRM alerts for changes to prior authorization A free-flowing and dynamic exchange of information between market access and commercial functions will not only improve alignment among teams, it is also a critical step in reengineering commercial processes, and with it, those who operate them. When asked to identify key activities which would help close the gap between managed markets and sales/marketing teams, market access respondents felt reorganizing sales teams to be key account management teams would be most effective. Sales/marketing respondents, on the other hand, believed setting CRM alerts for changes to prior authorization would be most beneficial in closing the gap. Clearly the industry is keen to drive convergence between sales and market access. Some big brands in life sciences, according to this survey, have already begun laying this new track by focusing on the people as well as the systems. When asked whether there were plans to retrain field sales forces to adopt a role combining the expertise of both sales and market access, 71.4% of all respondents confirmed that such plans were already in place. Just 25.7% of life sciences professionals said that there were no plans for such a move at this time. The future direction of travel is clear the question is how quickly each company will get there. 75% of pharmaceutical companies have plans to reengineer their sales teams within the next 3 years Key takeaway: The future roadmap for life sciences is clear; commercial teams must be reengineered to address market access challenges. To overtake competitors, companies will need both new skill sets and efficient transfer of information and insights for the optimal commercial engine. 8 Commercial Teams are Reengineering
Integrated Insights 5 Shift Winning Teams into High Gear According to the survey, consultancy engagements (24%), business intelligence tools (24%) and CRM (22%) are currently the solutions of choice for companies seeking to power their commercial operations with market access insights. The almost-even split indicates that companies have not yet adopted a clear system or tool to manage and share market access data and insights. When asked how investment in these solutions will change in the future, respondents demonstrated a clear preference for insights/analytic solutions, with 72% saying investment would increase in the next 3 years, while business intelligence tools and CRM remained secondary choices. This step-change in solutions investment shows that brands are seeking new, systemic solutions to power their reengineered field forces, rather than resource-heavy, one-off interventions currently in use. Furthermore, they hope to get more out of their existing investments in technology and data to shift quickly into accelerated insights. When asked which changes would most effectively close the gap between brand strategy and market access, rich and predictive insights from data are seen as the best solution. The most popular responses were incorporating data from HEOR studies into commercial operations (44.4%) and CRM alerts for changes in formulary prioritization (41.7%). Interestingly, the third most popular solution was reorganizing sales teams to be key account management teams (38.9%) that can power commercial operations and go the distance. 62% of pharmaceutical companies are currently looking to technology solutions to close the gap between brand and market access teams...that investment is set to increase as companies seek out insights and analytics solutions for a long-term fix. Key takeaway: A single platform that can programmatically and dynamically inject market access data and insights will ensure peak commercial efficiency at all times. Integrated Insights Shift 9 Executive summary 9 Winning Teams into High Gear
6 Key Takeaways POWERING THE COMMERCIAL ENGINE OF LIFE SCIENCES WITH MARKET ACCESS INSIGHTS FOR BRAND SUCCESS Identify the gaps and siloes in your organization between market access and prescriber-facing teams, and take steps to clear this blockage in the commercial engine. Put commercial teams in the driver s seat by upskilling them on market access insights as part of your pull-through strategy with prescribers and patients. Power your teams with technology that integrates market access data dynamically, from multiple sources, and disseminates insights across your organization to give them an extra gear over competitors. 10 Executive Key Takeaways summary
Methodology 7 Zephyr Health, in partnership with pharmaphorum, conducted a global survey of 60 senior pharmaceutical professionals in market access, managed markets, sales/marketing to discover the current challenges and possible solutions for pharmaceutical companies seeking to bridge the insights gap between market access teams and other commercial functions. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DESCRIBES YOUR ROLE? 13.3% (8) 6.7% (4) 31.7% (19) Market Access/Managed Markets Medical Affairs/Medical Leadership 16.7% (10) Marketing/Marketing Leadership Sales/Sales Leadership 31.7% (19) Other (please specify) WHICH REGION IS YOUR MAIN FOCUS? 28.3% (17) 25% (15) 33.3% (20) US Global Europe Latin America Asia Pacific 3.3% (2) 5% (3) Methodology 13
About Zephyr Health Zephyr Health helps Life Sciences companies pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostics engage the right physicians, accounts and institutions using insights from global health data. Zephyr Illuminate is a leading Insights-as-a-Service solution that integrates thousands of data sources to create precise and predictive insights. From pre-launch to product maturity, Life Sciences companies can make confident decisions faster with data-driven targeting and deep customer profiles. Media Contact: Zephyr Health Global Communications pr@zephyrhealth.com www.zephyrhealth.com