Amidst stringent regulations, limited new products pipelines, varied relationships in the pharma supply chain, improved awareness among patients, and the rise of competition through new players using advanced technologies, pharma companies are currently confronting the need to adopt innovative marketing practices. Pressure from the public, the government, and insurance companies to control drug pricing and the high cost of new drug development are forcing pharmaceutical companies to dig deep to find greater efficiency and effectiveness in their marketing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become more cautious and has made the reviewing process more stringent by increasing the length and number of clinical trials. With the increasing regulatory pressures to increase the complexity and length of clinical trials, the new product pipeline is becoming weaker.
With the ever-increasing competition through accelerated product launches and the advent of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing, the rules of the game have changed. Educated and empowered patients are doing comparison-based shopping for drugs online. Therefore, attracting and retaining customers have become increasingly significant for pharma companies. These changing industry dynamics and competitive forces have made the task of pharma marketing extremely challenging. Thus, understanding the evolving dynamics and its impact on marketing and sales will be crucial to marketers. The pressure on marketers to boost up efficiency has placed significant assessment on almost all traditional marketing tactics and practices. Thus, pharma marketing should discover innovative ways to improve their marketing efforts, and in certain cases, this would mean shifting from traditional methods of pharmaceutical marketing.
Pharma companies are rapidly increasing the intensity of competition through accelerated product launches in order to gain the first mover advantage. Several new players are surfacing, as the entry barriers are low. They are eager to capitalize on any existing or emerging opportunity in the market. Many successful pharmaceutical companies have deployed a plethora of strategies to target various customers. However, recent healthcare trends are posing new challenges and opportunities for increasing the profitability in pharma companies. Today, pharma marketing is undergoing see-saw changes. The primary forces evolving in the pharmaceutical industry and their likely impact on the marketing and sales are outlined in the ensuing discussion.
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