Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to
Postscripts, the podcast
exploring what happens afterthat first prescription.
We cover the latest innovationsin patient access, support,
digital tools, HCP engagementand pharma marketing that we
hope drive better outcomes forpatients.
We typically do a daily podcastof 10 to 15 minutes every
morning.
Give you an idea of what'sgoing on in the latest that
we're hearing as we track a lotof the ever-shifting events that
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are happening in the pharmaspace and for patient access and
support.
Again, this podcast is forinformational purposes only and
does not constitute medicaladvice or should it influence
any clinical decision-making.
Patients should always consulttheir healthcare professionals.
Welcome to the podcast.
My name is Brian Carr from theMedisafe team, although any
opinions expressed here are myown and not necessarily those of
(00:44):
Medisafe or its partners.
So let's look at the pricingpivot.
There's seven ways we're seeingright now, as of today, that
pharma marketing and brandstrategy is likely to shift as
drug prices face pressure, giventhe September 29 deadline that
the US administration has putinto effect for major drug
companies to give Americanconsumers the MFN status of most
(01:04):
favored nation status withprice relativity to other
countries.
So let's see how those drugpricing pressures are really
intensifying.
You know for decades the USpharma market really operated
under relatively few pricingconstraints compared to global
markets.
But what's happening is we'reseeing legislative momentum and
judicial decisions reallysupport cost containment and the
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era is shifting swiftly right.
A pivotal ruling, you mayrecall, happened about two or
three years ago with the USSupreme Court benchmark, because
in the broader movement to makemedications more affordable by
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patients by decreasing what boththe government and individuals
pay, the courts actually agreedto it and that means that it was
out of the hands necessarily ofPBMs, payers and hospitals and
health systems as to whatindividuals would pay.
So while patient advocacygroups really did share that
move, it marked a pretty biginflection point for pharma
marketers and commercializationteams Because what happens is,
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as margins tighten, brandstrategies are evolving and it's
happening pretty quickly.
Right now that's calendar daysit's more like about 31 or so
for business days for theSeptember 29 deadline that the
Trump administration put intoeffect to get plans from pharma
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companies on how they're goingto give American consumers MFN
status, certainly within thenext 18 months, if not sooner.
So what are the things we'relikely to see?
For agencies in particular,what we may see is some
reallocation of marketingbudgets toward more
outcomes-based strategies.
So as pricing pressure mounts,you can imagine pharma marketers
could face some internalscrutiny over every marketing
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dollar spent.
You see, traditionalhigh-exposure branding
activities may give way toprograms that demonstrate
improving outcomes, adherence oraccess right.
So that's where digitalplatforms and I work at W
MetaSafe, for example can reallyprovide value and there's other
vendors out there as well butby guiding patients with that
personalized support and reallycapturing behavioral data which
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is what we do at MetaSafe, andwe do it anonymously and data
encrypted, with all the privacyrules as well to really capture
trends in ways that we seetrends coming in, that may help
on a personal basis where we seeother patients maybe say, for
example, falling off on aparticular treatment.
After we see some of these datasigns, we can actually get
proactive with certain patientsthat we may be seeing this
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happening with and message themand do some what we call
just-in-time interventions alittle bit differently to make
sure that they stay on brand andloyal and, you know, preserves
their impacts, we hope, and goodthings with they stay on with
their medications and alsopreserves the market share and
other metrics for pharma brandsright.
So you know what's happeninghere.
You know you see US biopharmadata on R&D and just you know
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it's typically more than $100billion a year, right?
So this is going to come undersome increasing cost
justification scrutiny.
Sarah Deloitte's out with asurvey a couple of years ago
that 62% of pharma execs reallydid cite proving ROI of the
brand support programs as amajor challenge, right?
So when we see a shift towardsprograms that really demonstrate
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value, it's not a trend, it'sactually going to become a major
KPI even more.
As margins tighten.
It's rapidly really becomingthe norm.
So two, you may especially withagencies of concern, you may see
expanded use of real-worldevidence to justify the value,
right?
So brands now need not only todefend the scientific efficacy
of medications but alsoreal-world performance.
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When you see pricingnegotiations, lean into
value-based assessment is iteffective?
Are patients staying ontreatment?
That's going to be pivotalmetrics because that actually,
if they're staying on treatment,there's good indications that
that's going to affect theoverall value and efficacy of
the medications, right?
So real-world evidence is reallyemerging as a critical currency
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, so you'll see agencies andinnovation teams really adapting
campaigns to fold in real-timefeedback and loops using
aggregated data sources such asthose found with major digital
platforms.
Metasafe would be one of them.
We've got billions of datapoints, for example, all
anonymized, that can spot trendsand do automated interventions
to make impact real in the realworld.
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So this level, this type oflevel of insight, really enables
us real-time campaigncalibration and can enhance
payer and provider discussionsabout impact.
And that real-world evidencereally does help marketers
because it can demonstrateadherence, impact long-term and
highlight the behavior-drivenpersonalization strategies that
we know work right and testedand it builds stronger
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value-based messaging tostakeholders and brand loyalty
as well.
When you've got those supportteams and real-world evidence
talking to patients on a daily,weekly, monthly basis, even if
it's in a digital way or usingtechnology like, we're going to
see more AI voice agents come tothe fore, where it's
human-gen-like conversations,but you're doing it with an AI
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bot with all approvals that arenecessary and opt-in, similar to
MetaSafe Via.
We've already launched ourplatform that does that very
effectively and it can be usedfor symptom tracking with
patients, check-ins, things likethat.
So, and even, you know,encouraging them to download or
join a program.
Three, you're going to see somechallenges in differentiation
and real competitive positioningright.
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So, as price becomes maybe anon-negotiable factor for payers
and patients alike, you'regoing to see brands fighting
harder to really differentiatepurely on overall value,
superior innovation and agenciesare going to be leaning on
brand experience, the totalityof whether it's support services
, hcp, comms and journeys andpatient onboarding tools and
digital engagement and real data.
Coming back about campaigns andwhich campaigns are the most
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effective gnarly and drivingmedication, but persistence and
adherence and compliant patientsthat are joining the program.
So that's where you havedigital companions can be key to
shaping patient experience as amajor value differentiator.
And having integrated brandsupport into the daily lives of
patients, especially thosemanaging those chronic
conditions, really can givemarket as an edge where drug
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pricing might not Might not givethat edge.
That has been in the past Four.
You're going to see accelerationof product lifestyle marketing
and earlier adoption curves.
You can understand there'srevenue forecasts for new drugs
really do rely on a stronglaunch momentum and peak year
sales.
So they're forecasting 10, 20years in advance on a medication
, depending on the patent.
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And then really those forecastsdo take into account very
strong launches.
But if you're going to shortenthose exclusivity windows and
really have especiallyaggressive biosimilar entries
and you really have to nail thatearly traction much more early
on once a brand is launched.
So and kind of lack of a betterterm lock in some of that brand
loyalty from the beginning.
Before the biosimilars comeover and you know you have a
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price situation coming.
So with the potential for, youknow, cms negotiated prices
coming, particularly under thisinformation inflation reduction
act, you may see someblockbuster medications see
significant value erosion afteronly a few years if they don't
have a strong launch.
So to counter this, brands aregoing to have smarter
omni-channel engagementimmediately after launch.
So that's where platforms anddigital and real-world
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engagement tools like MetaSafecan really power that
acceleration.
All right, and finally here lookfor growing investment in
adherence and persistenceprograms, whether it's
agency-wide promulgated or brandmanagers and procurement teams
going directly.
You know, in an environment ofpricing scrutiny, it does become
even more critical to maximizeevery prescription that's filled
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right.
So non-adherence is going tolead to financial waste, lower
health outcomes, which couldthen impact efficacy,
conversations with payers andothers in the pricing and
overall missed impacts forwellness of patients and the
impact it can have on patientsand also revenue opportunities.
So when you talk to, you know,non-adherents, we know what the
challenges are.
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It's almost, you know, $300billion.
$100 billion to $300 billion innon-adherents is lost annually
in the United States healthcaresystem.
I'm sure if you're listening tothis at this stage, you already
know some of these numbers.
When you have those smartadherence and loyalty platforms,
they do allow pharma brands toclose any leaky funnel
post-initiation andpost-titration for those launch
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brands especially so.
It's going to maximize not justpersistence but patient
satisfaction.
And this is where the fullsuite of a company like Medisave
comes in, from voice-integratedagents to our digital companion
solutions already integratedinto their smartphones.
We have HCP portals that help,especially on certain conditions
, where clinics can download anduse the application for free
(09:36):
and really track whether it'sMRIs and other infusion
appointments that are happening.
So it's really happening there.
So a couple other quick oneshere.
You will see a shift probablytoward patient-centric pricing,
with lawmakers and the publicreally attuned to the price tags
right now.
Pharmacom's strategy isprobably going to see more
increasingly lean into patientvalue narratives, focusing on
equity access affordability.
(09:57):
You're going to see field teamsgetting equipped with awareness
campaigns, with messagingrooted on the impact of the
medications, not necessarily theinvention of it.
So questions like how does thistherapy really empower better
day-to-day outcomes are going tomatter much more than the
mechanism of action.
Access support programs willplay a bigger role in supporting
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the positioning, and the moredata any marketing teams have
about user experience, whetherit's through digital solutions
or predictive insights using AI,the stronger these narratives
are going to become.
Lastly, here we're really goingto see a focus on multi-channel
personalization.
Budget constraints, price andcaps come, they produce pressure
on traditional media, anddigital innovation can become a
path forward because when youhave personalized engagement
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platforms, it really does makeit possible to reach each user
with the right message, formatand cadence, not only at the
right time, but also in theright method.
So the format mentioned cadence, not only at the right time,
but also in the right method.
So the format mentioned there.
You know, are they more likelyto pick up the phone or reply to
a text message or do they wantto, you know, get an email
instead?
So we can actually make surethat we're communicating people
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not in the right time or theright message, but in the right
manner, that they're more likelyto engage right.
So when you get to that form ofscalable, intelligent marketing
marketing, it's just, itbecomes more affordable and it's
really measurably moreeffective.
So industry data shows when yousend those personalized health
messages 54% or more are morelikely.
The engagement metrics andthat's out of IQVIA data from a
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couple of years ago on theirpromotional trends, the
efficiency when you havepersonalization nailed down,
like Medisafe or some othercompanies do, it really has
transformed, for it's no longera buzzword, it's really going to
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be an imperative.
In conclusion, let's keep an eyeon this.
Pharma marketers may look verydifferent no-transcript when
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generating measurable outcomesdata that can justify budgets
and enhance strategy.
That's where you're going tolook for more ROI and digital
tools definitely deliver on that.
Some key takeaways a marketeris going to start reorienting
around outcome-based ROI, ifthey haven't already.
You're going to hear more aboutthat Real-world evidence,
adherence data just foundationalto future campaigns because
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they definitely have valuebeyond the impacts for patients.
So you're going to see a lotmore value placed on that
Differentiation among brands.
If it can't be on price, it'sgoing to depend more on
experience and value versus justthe price right.
So advanced solutions can helpscale personalized experience,
loyalty, affordability, can doit compliantly and preserve
impacts for patients and marketshare for pharma companies.
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So there's no doubt really thatthe marketer of tomorrow is
going to need more precision,proof patient partnerships even
than ever before, so we'll keepan eye on it for you.
Thank you so much for tuninginto the podcast Post scripts
here.
If you found this conversationvaluable, follow or subscribe
for more insights as we keep aneye on the intersection of
pharma tech and patient impact.
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Till next time, keep lookingforward.
The real work begins after thescript is written.
Bye now.