A client recently said to me, and I agree, “This is the future of marketing. It is not about promoting the brand, it is about promoting the disease and how you’re going to be involved in that role of disease management. A company with a clear understanding of how they can help advance the management of a disease, that’s the company that’s going to win.”
From a medical affairs perspective, it is about how to partner with the market to improve disease control, from prevention, to earlier detection and sustainable management. For the companies, it is partnering to advance disease control that will drive value for patients, providers, insurers, the system, and the company.
It is incumbent on the pharmaceutical company to pull together these pieces. It requires a very clear vision about what is achievable that will drive value for both the marketplace and for the company. This requires clarity of strategy across all elements of commercialization, including medical strategy. It’s not enough to support medical thought leadership initiatives, companies have to help to achieve consensus around where national improvements and policies are needed to improve disease management and control. This seemingly single mission is really challenging the way that pharmaceutical marketing is done.
