PharmaMarketing-Communication A Key.

Pharmaceuticals- namely tablets, orals, injections and other drug delivery systems are very critical for human life and hence high quality standards as per regulatory requirements and their continued compliance is a must for all manufacturing organizations. No way less important is its prescriptions, sale and presentation. There are a number of organizations and institutions which are associated right from the medicines leave the manufacturing premises and then ultimately these reach the hands of the consumers. Quality of medicines need to be protected and preserved by all those associated. Consumers hardly know how to protect the quality of medicines since training of the consumers either by the doctors or hospitals hardly exists in the developing countries. No one teaches the patients and medicines consumers how to protect and promote the quality of medicines especially the instructions relating opening, closing, etc. Of course there are printed instructions on the label claims etc. still this author is of doubt that in the poor countries the consumers really read them or know them. Leaving aside this aspect.. let us now come on the pharma marketing where communication is key.



In any pharmaceutical company, there exists an organogram for the marketing and sales of the medicines. And the size of this organogram depends on the nature of the pharmaceuticals company and its turnover and its number of products and the scope of its medicines in the domestic markets,neighbouring export markets and or globally. Within the pharmaceuticals company, the marketing and sales department coordinates with various functions and gets the inputs relating regulatory compliance, quality aspects, from the medical department relating prescriptions, the doses and the curing and treatment dynamics of the medicines. Once the medicine has been developed and manufactured, now arises the key task how to take it to the hands of the doctors who are going to prescribe the medicine of that organization to the patients.

While the senior marketing management does all kinds of structured preparations, it is the bottom staff popularly known as medical representatives who interphase with the doctors. The product development and introduction team also does the introduction of the medicines to the doctors, their interaction is hardly signficant in percentage in view of the widest and largest communication challenges being met and fulfilled by the medical representatives.



Most the medical representatives in developing countries are males and very insignificant percentage of women are employed for the purpose. This author has no substantial reason for this. This is the general observation and may be my opinions are now wrong. Medical representatives are mostly fresh and experienced graduates in pharmaceuticals discipline or science streams. And these are hired or employed for the purpose of marketing and selling the medicines. While the sale of the medicines totally depends on the prescriptions and prescriptions flow from the doctors, who prescribe it to the patients and who in turn buy from the medical shops/ stores/ medicines retain outlets. If the nature of disease is short term then the medicines shall have a short term sales performance and if the disease happens to be medium term or long term, in accordance shall be the established markets of the medicines. However, for the same disease there are number of branded products with the same active pharmaceuticals ingredients and varied and permitted excipients combinations, it becomes a competitive feature for almost all pharmaceuticals companies how to establish the confidence with the doctors.. what to do to ensure that prescriptions of a given company are continuously and sustainably prescribed by the doctors. So there begins the short and long term relationship with the organization and doctors. And medical representative represents the company, the products and quality of the medicines. So pharmaceuticals marketing largely depends to an extent how much effective is the medical representative in selling the medicines. And there arises now the role of communication between the doctor and medical representatives.
A medicine is marketed nation wide and when organizing an all India marketing of the medicine, it is essential for the marketing and sales department that communications aspects are duly identified and risks involved in the communication are estimated and prioritized and based on the higest significant risks involved in communication, the organization, marketing and sales department take corrective and preventive actions.

to be continued..in part II.

drbmsharma.