Centralized procurement accelerates and expands the scope The marketing transformation of pharmaceutical companies is imperative

So far, the state has organized 7 batches of centralized drug procurement, and the cumulative number of successful procurement of drugs has reached 294, with an average price reduction of more than
45%.
The centralized procurement of drugs is mainly carried out for varieties with wide clinical applications, large dosage and high amounts, and the scope of procurement has gradually expanded
.
In 2022, both national procurement and local collective procurement have entered the stage
of "accelerating and expanding the surface".
In the past, pharmaceutical companies mostly adopted the marketing and promotion method of "clinical academic promotion + customer information maintenance", but with the sharp decline in the price of selected drugs, the original model can no longer meet the requirements of the new policy environment, and it is imperative to change the marketing and promotion model of pharmaceutical companies
.

 

Marketing is indispensable

 

After the national procurement of drugs, some pharmaceutical companies believe that the relevant documents require medical institutions to complete the use of selected products, and do not need enterprises to do the promotion of the hospital market, nor do they need to carry out academic promotion
of products.
There are actually certain misunderstandings
in this understanding.
First of all, the selected products with a high proportion of the stock market and strong brand effect may not need to do too much promotion work when used within the reporting range of the reporting hospital, but for the overuse part of the hospital that does not report the amount and the excess use of the reporting hospital, it is still necessary to carry out product promotion work
.
Secondly, in clinical use, the selected products with a low proportion of the stock market and weak brand effect still face many problems, and doctors need relevant support from enterprises to provide drug information, otherwise it will have an adverse impact
on clinical use and product sales.
Thirdly, the renewal of the selected products has been regularized, the renewal plan is mainly based on comprehensive evaluation, brand reputation, clinical experts' big data evaluation, etc.
play an important role, so marketing work is still essential
.
Finally, for non-selected products or alternative products, no promotion work is equivalent to actively abandoning the market
.
It can be seen that if pharmaceutical companies want to develop in the long run, they must continue to promote marketing work
.

 

From the procurement data of the terminal market of the first batch to the third batch of selected products in national procurement, compared with the initial reported volume, the purchase volume often shows an increase of 5~8 times or even 10 times, which shows that there is still a large deviation between the current 60%~80% of the reported volume of the selected products and the actual clinical use; Due to the different policies for the use of non-selected products in different places, there is a broad space
for the original 20%~40% of the market outside the reported volume.
Obtaining the largest market share after the product is selected has become the main goal
of the enterprise in the procurement cycle.
More than 3 years of national procurement practice has proved that the marketing work of pharmaceutical enterprises can change the terminal structure of selected products, which helps enterprises to obtain higher product sales and larger market share
.

 

The marketing environment has changed dramatically

 

After the implementation of national procurement, drug prices have generally dropped sharply, and pharmaceutical companies that used to use "high price difference" to sell their products are facing a great impact, and these enterprises have to make substantial adjustments to the price decomposition plan even if they do not change their sales methods; For pharmaceutical companies that carry out pure academic promotion, due to the sharp decline in product profits, the previous promotion methods are almost unfeasible, and these pharmaceutical companies need to streamline promotion actions, highlight promotion priorities, and reduce promotion input
.

 

Before and after the national procurement, the marketing environment of the pharmaceutical market has undergone tremendous changes
.
First of all, the phenomenon of gold sales of drugs has been effectively curbed
.
The reasons for this are, firstly, the price of selected drugs has dropped sharply, and there is indeed no "gold" to bring; Second, the state cracks down on commercial bribery in the field of medicine; Third, the factors of clinical sales of drugs are more diverse, and the price gap between the selected drugs in the same group is very large, which provides a differentiated possibility
for the marketing of pharmaceutical enterprises.

 

Second, companies' dependence on medical representatives has dropped
dramatically.
Before the national procurement, the main work of medical representatives was clinical bill of lading, hospital account opening, customer maintenance, product volume, unified payment, etc.
; After the national procurement, medical institutions unconditionally open accounts, doctors must prescribe and other rules, so that the work tasks and nature of medical representatives have undergone essential changes, and the dependence of enterprises on medical representatives has also decreased significantly, so a small number of enterprises have disbanded the original team of medical representatives, but most enterprises still choose to retain the team
of medical representatives.

 

Third, the role of agents is greatly reduced
.
The reserve price agency system is a common business mode formed in the pharmaceutical industry in the past 20 years, and most pharmaceutical companies used this method to sell products before the national procurement
.
At the end of 2016, eight departments including the former Medical Reform Office of the State Council jointly issued the Notice on the Implementation Opinions on the Implementation of the "Two-invoice System" in the Procurement of Drugs in Public Medical Institutions (Trial Implementation), which began to implement the "two-invoice system" nationwide, while the state intensified its efforts to crack down on illegal acts
in the field of finance and taxation.
In this context, although pharmaceutical companies have gradually changed from reserve price invoicing to high-price invoicing, the promotion mode of the reserve price agency system has not changed
.
Agents play an important role in this model, and hospital account opening, maintaining prescription volumes, and advancing funds are their core work, which is the main reason why
pharmaceutical manufacturers rely on agents.
After the national procurement of drugs, the national medical insurance department has taken some targeted measures, and the role and value of agents to production enterprises have been greatly reduced
.

 

An effective way to transform marketing

 

Change is an eternal theme
.
The acceleration and expansion of drug centralized procurement has forced pharmaceutical companies to transform their marketing and promotion methods, and all enterprises participating in collective procurement will face the same challenges
.
Combined with the practice of pharmaceutical companies in marketing in the past three years, the author has summarized the following four effective transformation paths:

 

First, the promotion should shift from focusing on doctors to focusing
on hospital access.
For the selected products, it is necessary to study not only the hospital access rules within and outside the volume of the reported hospital, but also the admission of non-reported hospitals; For non-selected products, it is necessary to study the access rules and usage
of products outside the hospital's reported volume.
In addition, local hanging rules, medical insurance payment methods, clinical paths, etc.
may also involve access-related content, and enterprises should strengthen research
.

 

The second is to classify and manage products, and choose different promotion methods
according to different categories.
The selected products can be classified according to the size of the price reduction, and compared with the promotion cost, and then the products with promotion conditions can be determined, and for products that do not have promotion conditions, rely on natural sales; It is also possible to divide the selected products according to the level of market share, compared with the original low market share and brand effect of the products, the original high market share, good brand effect of the product marketing is less difficult, so once the former obtains the exclusive selection qualification, it is necessary to actively carry out marketing, otherwise it is likely to be replaced
when renewing the bid.

 

The third is to strengthen terminal control and replace customer maintenance
with marketing activities.
The promotion mode adopted by pharmaceutical manufacturers is mostly based on the comprehensive consideration
of product cost, marketing revenue analysis, difficulty of entering the market and previous management experience.
In recent years, the refined investment promotion method has been adopted
by more and more enterprises.
For a long time, strengthening terminal control has been the focus of the game between manufacturers and agents under the investment agency system, but in the past, enterprises did not have the manpower or tools to penetrate into the hospital terminal to provide one-on-one services
for doctors.
Drug centralized procurement has changed the terminal maintenance rules, creating conditions for pharmaceutical manufacturers, which can penetrate into hospital terminals
through marketing activities and academic promotion.
It is expected that in the future, the control role of production enterprises on the terminal will become stronger and stronger
.
For pharmaceutical manufacturers who are unable to carry out marketing activities, regional third-party promotion agencies led by academic promotion may be another option
.

 

The fourth is to make full use of the prescription circulation platform and actively develop the out-of-hospital market
.
The main market under the traditional marketing model is medical institutions, but in recent years, the out-of-hospital market has boomed, and prescription drug sales have maintained rapid growth
.
At the same time, the drug procurement policy has accelerated the development of non-selected products in the out-of-hospital market.
Under the "dual channel" policy, the out-of-hospital market of national medical insurance negotiation varieties has developed rapidly
.
At present, the new prescription drug sales model of "in-hospital + out-of-hospital" has taken shape
.
In addition, some provinces are actively exploring the construction of regional prescription circulation platforms, opening up new channels for the out-of-hospital use of prescription drugs; The rise of Internet hospitals and the management of medical insurance payment prices have also promoted more out-of-hospital sales of prescription drugs; Encouraged by national policies, commercial insurance also provides new development space
for prescription drug out-of-hospital sales.