Structure of Commercial

Under the Commercial functional area, Marketing and Market Access groups work cooperatively in a pharmaceutical company.

Within Marketing, internal positions focus on creating the drug’s brand, message, and vision onto promotional material for target audiences External colleagues, such as sales representatives and direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers, are responsible for distributing these promotional materials to target audiences, including healthcare providers (HCP) and patients.

Within Market Access, internal positions focus on developing the drug’s pricing, contracting, and value proposition . External colleagues, such as access support marketers and account executives, convey these developments to payers and influencers Payers include insurance and pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s), while influencers are comprised of hospital pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees and key opinion leaders (KOL’s).

Overall, there is a vast amount of administration within this functional area to navigate complex payment systems and demonstrate the drug’s innovative brand and benefits

HOW IS MARKETING INCORPORATED IN A DRUG’S LIFE CYCLE?

Marketing can enhance a drug’s image and position the product for success by addressing the patient and provider experience. Optimizing this customer experience can improve revenues, satisfaction, and adherence

Product Life Cycle

Drugs, and other marketable products, undergo different stages throughout their life cycle. The four stages of a drug’s life cycle includes the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline , where each stage needs individual marketing strategies for optimizing its revenue and brand

The introduction stage is the period of market entry for the drug product, where sales may be slow due to high expenses of production, promotion, and/or distribution. At this stage, the drug product may face difficulties in convincing providers of the product’s value. Strategy here focuses on intensive personal selling to a targeted medical community to create awareness and garner popularity

In the growth stage, substantial profit is made with widespread medical approval of the drug product Growth marketing strategies focus on product improvement with the development of unique brand differences, market segments, price adjustments, and promotional activities to gain a wider distribution . Increases in sales allow for price adjustments and cost lowering

Maturity is reached when the drug product’s sales and profits peak without further room for growth. Marketing strategies here investigate new “markets” or areas to use the drug product. Other strategies focus on improving the product line by producing different dosage forms to remain competitive in the mature market. Otherwise, the net effect during this stage is a saturation of the marketplace

Although decline is seen as a decrease in product sales, the drug is not necessarily unmarketable or unprofitable. By this time, decrease in overall demand removes competitors out of the marketplace At this stage, marketers incorporate strategies such as finding new product uses, retaining the product line while reducing promotional support, or pricing the drug below the market price.