The BHBIA conference – beyond expectations!!

As a first time delegate, I did not know what to expect from the BHBIA conference.  It’s fair to say, my expected highlights were the awards dinner and guest speech by Mark Foster, one of the UK’s most decorated sportspeople. 

From my tower of cynical ignorance, I had two main preconceptions about the conference as;

1.   A backslapping exercise for the main sponsoring agencies/client companies

2.   A platform for agencies/service providers to hawk their wares, with harassed clients fleeing successive sales pitches as they make their way from coffee pot to  paper-presentation

My opinion, however, rapidly and considerably changed for three key reasons…

Collaboration

As I listened to the first paper-presentation, I was struck by the atmosphere of togetherness and partnership.  The transparent discussion of innovative methodologies and success stories was inspiring.  Imparting this “winning feeling” to us all and initiating new directions of thinking was not just refreshing…it was incredibly motivating. 

Pride

It was very easy to see the pride delegates have in the Pharma industry. Highlighted at every point was how business intelligence adds value to all aspects of a brand’s life cycle.  There is real scope for change, real opportunity for innovation and real need for the business intelligence community to make the difference.  I doubt any delegate left without a feeling of purpose and energy.

Receptivity

Opportunity to talk with client and agency colleagues with the sole agenda of promoting better business intelligence was very powerful.  Existing pre-conceptions and relationships were set aside, as delegates openly discussed issues and brainstormed solutions.  This added to the positive feeling of the conference and likewise to my belief in what I/we can achieve to improve healthcare in the UK.

As for looking ahead? I will certainly attend the 2013 BHBIA conference, and hope this summary encourages thinking into what a creative forum like this could mean to your company and team’s approach to business intelligence.

Oh, I almost forgot, the awards dinner and Mark Foster speech were also sensational!

The author: Joe Gadilhe is Senior Research Executive at Branding Science. With experience across therapy areas, he has managed research projects exploring the views and opinions of payers and physicians in the UK and abroad.

Market access: Is the hurdle getting bigger?

Recently the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence chose not to live up to it's abbreviated moniker (NICE) when considering reimbursement for two new agents eagerly anticipated by both physicians and patients alike. Both agents are hailed as providing meaningful benefits to patients that go beyond just clinical efficacy in their therapy areas, Multiple Sclerosis and Metastatic Breast Cancer. (In the interests of neutrality I will not mention the products by name here!)

These products both secured European regulatory approval and have launched in other European markets. So, drugs launching in the UK seem to need more precise, more meaningful and more compelling evidence to secure reimbursement........oh yes....they also need to be dirt cheap!

With a raft of changes and reforms impacting the NHS, its structure and funding, including the introduction of GP consortia and the QIPP programme tasked with saving £20 Bn by 2014; are the barriers to market in the UK getting higher, more confused and less penetrable? What does this actually mean for pharmaceutical companies and brand teams looking to launch their value adding novel agent? How can brand and market access teams engage in a meaningful way with the right stakeholders in the right way?

These are all questions we have been thinking about here at Branding Science and identified some key areas of understanding that will benefit our Pharma clients.

Determining who the new stakeholders will be both during and after these reforms will enable brand teams to engage effectively and help leverage commissioning priorities in their favour.

Understanding how these reforms are interpreted by the different stakeholders and their potential impact on day-to-day practices will help anticipate the changes that will happen. This process will provide critical insights on the evolution brands have to achieve to resonate in their new environment.

Identifying the real life, underlying priorities of these reforms will enable our clients to focus their brand communications to areas of greatest importance. Eg. If the focus is cost, brands may need to communicate a strong value proposition. If the focus is innovation, client brands may need to show advancement and novelty against current services. Should the focus be the patient, then communicating meaningful patient outcomes and quality of life improvements will be key.

The point is that in a changing environment, it is important for everyone to understand what the reforms mean in real terms – and brand teams in particular have certainly a lot to gain by starting this process early! We’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject and likewise, work together to find the answers!

The author: Joe Gadilhe is Senior Research Executive at Branding Science. With experience across therapy areas, he has managed research projects exploring the views and opinions of payers and physicians in the UK and abroad.

NHS prescribing data to be published?

Did you spot this proposal, buried in a document only briefly referred to, in this year's Budget speech?

There are plans to make prescribing data public - on a practice-by-practice level.

It's all there in clause 2.200 on page 98 of "The Plan for Growth". Depending on what exactly is released, this could have enormous implications. Imagine that were to be published:

• levels and trends in generic vs. branded medicine prescribing
• regional variations in treatment pathways
• extent of combination therapy use
• local policy on management of niche conditions
• high-prescribing vs. low-prescribing practices

There are concerns over the proposal, not least because it may mean de facto identification of individual GPs and patients (e.g. if a practice only has one patient with a particularly rare condition).

One to keep an eye on...

The Author: John Coulthard is Senior Research Executive at Branding Science and leading our business intelligence initiative around the NHS reforms