Cognet~X, Inc.:
Relationship-building Drives Pharmaceutical Company Promotion to Key Managed
Care Executives
FEASTERVILLE---(February 14,
2002)---While product-specific promotion is still important, discussions of
strategic partnering and relationship building are beginning to drive
pharmaceutical company promotion to managed care pharmacy directors, according
to Cognet~X, Inc.
Full-year 2001 data from Cognet~X’s PAR-Rx (Promotional Assessment Research) Report™ indicate that
non-product-specific promotion often surpassed contacts linked to a specific
brand. The PAR-Rx Report tracks promotion to the most influential pharmacy
directors in the managed care marketplace.
In the fourth quarter alone, eight
of the top 10 corporations allocated between 10% and 30% of their contacts for
non-product-specific discussions. PAR-Rx panelists tell Cognet~X that these
elite corporations offer proposals for and seek out opportunities to build
partnerships with key managed care customers.
GlaxoSmithKline is a prime example
of this trend. According to PAR-Rx data, GlaxoSmithKline generated the most
promotional contacts to key managed care pharmacy directors during 2001, its
first full year post-merger. In the fourth quarter, 20% of the company’s
contacts to PAR-Rx panelists focused on non-product-specific contacts.
“Our rapport with this company is
good; [GlaxoSmithKline] has products we believe in [and] they are willing to
partner with us on community based projects,” one Par-Rx panelist recently
told Cognet~X.
“Working together on outcomes
analysis to share data and to begin participation in prospective, randomized
clinical trial,” another pharmacy director noted, following a
GlaxoSmithKline meeting.
During three of the four quarters
in 2001, GlaxoSmithKline also generated more contacts to PAR-Rx panelists than
did any other corporation. In the fourth quarter, the company finished second
behind Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Ten percent of Novartis’
fourth-quarter contacts were non-product specific. “They support our team
meetings and staff development,” one pharmacy executive noted. “Offered
[us] unrestrictive support, the best pull-through programs and willingness to
work together,” explained another.
The
partnership-building trend clearly extends beyond newly merged corporations
like GlaxoSmithKline or firms like Novartis that have a long history of
collaborating with managed care customers.
Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca
PLC, Aventis Pharma AG and Pfizer Inc.—all top-10 corporations in terms of
total fourth-quarter promotion—each spent more than 20% of their
fourth-quarter contacts discussing non-product-specific issues, Cognet~X analysis indicates.
Pfizer “provided partnerships for
community” and has been “supportive in new formulary additions and drug
information,” one panelist noted. Said another, “Pfizer is willing to help
in all areas of my plan to make [it] better and [to help us] continue to
grow.”
About the PAR-Rx Report
Cognet~X’s PAR-Rx Report is a
year-round service that provides the pharmaceutical industry with real-time,
Internet-based competitive intelligence on pharmaceutical company promotion to
influential managed care pharmacy directors.
The Report offers Cognet~X clients
the ability to evaluate and analyze variable differences that are critically
important to their decision-making process. The Report collects comprehensive
data that can be segmented and analyzed to provide clients with “21st-Century
solutions to their 21st-Century challenges.”
About Cognet~X
Cognet~X
offers the pharmaceutical
industry market research, consulting and software development that help
companies build and refine their relationships with numerous customer bases,
including the managed care community. Based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Cognet~X
is privately held and employee owned.
For more information on the
PAR-Rx Report or other valuable Cognet~X products, please contact Robert E.
Houghton (extension 101) at (215) 396-8300 or via e-mail at robh@cognetx.com.
