DISCLAIMER: My focus is on interesting information, I did not try to take verbatim notes and will not try to assign comments to a particular speaker. Any mistakes are mine alone.
In no particular order, some of things are found interesting included:
- A pill is poison unless the right information is wrapped around it.
- ACA
- Because of the passage of the ACA and the Supreme Court upholding the law, Rx spending is expected to increase 4.7% more than is the law had not passed
- With the ACA’s introduction of roughly 20 million newly insured people in 2014, the US market will become the fastest growing pharmaceutical market in the world
- Tax Deductibility for Marketing and Sales expenses in Biopharma
- Some talk about eliminating this to increase tax revenue
- Proposed 3 times in the last year but killed each time
- NOT at all clear whether MA would be considered marketing under tax law
- If passed, likely to see major cuts needed to balance budgets in these areas
- Sunshine Act
- Already happening for 16 companies under CIA’s
- For a taste of the info that will be available, see this link
- New PhRMA/Coalition formed to educate public about wave of new disclosure information coming called National Dialog for Healthcare Innovation
- Caronia Ruling (you knew I would have to get something in here about this)
- No one knows when it will be law of the land but likely 5 to 10 years
- Old standard of safe – what is on the label
- New standard will be – information that a reasonable consumer would not find misleading
- New standard is current FTC standard for all advertisement
- Data will be king, but not just data submitted to FDA
- For time being, continue like no change
- History of MSL Role
- First MSLs started 40 years ago
- Up John created role and actually trademarked the name MSL
- Part of the sales teams – scientific sales
- MSL Facts of Interest
- Most MSLs manage between 25 and 49 KOLs
- 32% of companies surveyed (n~60+) intend to grow MSL team
- Only 11% intend to shrink MSL teams
- Value of MSLs by Physicians
- Surveys showed physicians do NOT value frequency, they value:
- Accessibility
- Responsiveness
- Knowledge
- Up to date information
- Do NOT want to meet with MSLs if:
- Only have old or out of date information
- Feel they are biased
- Have nothing new to tell them
- Diagnostic MSLs
- Specific MSL group focused on uptake of diagnostics
- Big challenge – to use a diagnostic, they need the diagnostic platform – often millions of dollars
- Thus broader array of people involved in decision beyond just HCP, including:
- Bench Tech
- Lab Managers
- Pathologists
- Administration
- Opens questions about right regulatory regime for non-HCPs
- CIA Driven Changes
- CIAs require standards and documentation
- Documentation increasingly taking the form of customer relationship management systems specifically for MA
- Most common system by show of hands in the room: Veeva running on Salesforce.com
- To be effective, this type of system needs to:
- Track interactions
- Manage content
- Link the two
- Key pitfalls
- Privacy, especially for global systems given EU requirements
- Complexity
Obviously, this is merely a few key concepts from the day but it should give you some flavor of the type of discussions and the focus of the meeting. Overall I would say the tone was very positive, given the challenges MSLs face in their highly regulated environment. Everyone at the meeting was confident that MSLs value was high and these challenges could be met. Look forward to tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your thoughts as well as suggestions for other topics.