13th March 2009
Pharma in Focus News Article posted 2nd March 2009
A study of calling patterns by representatives from 13 pharmacos has shown as much as $75 million a year could be going to waste because of ineffecient use of resources.
Based on a survey of call activity information gathered by Life Science Partners (LSP) combined with data from Health Communications Network's General Practice Research Network (GPRN), the study showed that in the 2007-2008 financial year around 5,800 GPs received less than eight face to face or meeting calls.
This indicated that around 24% of GPs were either relatively inaccessible to, or not targeted by, company reps in 2007-08, a slight improvement on 2005-06, the last year for which Pharma in Focus published similar figures. These figures showed that 25.4% of GPs were considered inaccessible or non-targeted. But LSP Director, Debbie Field, indicated that inaccessibility remains a problem.
These [2007-2008] results include meeting call types which would have slightly increased the current coverage levels - and the reduced trend is continuing, said Ms Field. The average coverage for all companies in the survey was around 57% of GPs, although coverage is much lower when examined by specific therapy classes, Ms Field said.
The survey revealed that, on average, a GP representative makes 5.5 calls in a day and sees each GP only 2.5 times in a year, although the frequency changes significantly for key customers. A handful of GPs received over 300 calls from this group of companies in a year, but when analysed by specific therapy areas, coverage was generally less than 50%.
Ms Field estimated that with around 3000 reps on the road in Australia at an average all-up expense of $250,000 each, representation was costing pharmacos as much as $750 million a year. "If 10% of this is being wasted, that's $75 million" she said.
With companies needing to carefully utilise their resources, not only is it important to be contacting the right doctors, but it's also vital that the contact is meaningful to the doctor. The pharmaceutical companies provide an invaluable source of information to doctors, so these contacts need to be relevant, with clear messages.
She said LSP was in the process of gathering call activity information for 2008-09 for a follow up study and intended to conduct qualitative research into GP's attitudes to rep calls on the basis of the initial survey.
Nick Lush
Pharma in Focus
3rd February 2009
Industry CAP Launch (presented by LSP and HCN)
LSP’s Call Activity Performance service for total industry contacts will be held in Sydney on 26th February and Melbourne on 27th February.
Representatives’ calls and sample contacts against GPs and specialists have been collected from thirteen major pharmaceutical companies.
This will be the largest ever aggregation and analysis of actual industry contacts in Australia. The CAP Breakfast seminar will highlight to the industry how to determine
Which “inaccessible” targets are called on by your competitors?
Can you reach non-accessible doctors in other ways?
Is your call frequency generating scripts?
Are your samples generating scripts?
How well do your reps perform compared with the industry?
What level of industry rep activity are you competing against?
Which doctors have an active interest in your therapy area?
For more details, contact Debbie Field by email: Debbie@LifeSciencePartners.com.au
26th May 2008
APPOINTMENT OF YVETTE BLACKWOOD AS RESEARCH DIRECTOR
We are pleased to announce the new appointment of Yvette Blackwood as Research Director. Yvette joins LSP after having worked previously with Foresearch, Outlook Research and Planning and CSD in healthcare research.
Yvette has over 10 years of marketing and research experience, predominantly specialising in the healthcare industry, in both qualitative and quantitative market research. Yvette also has experience in business to business and consumer research.
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