Sales Performance: How to Support Medical Representatives? (1/3)

• This scarcity of “blockbusters” necessitates finding new growth opportunities. As such, pharmaceutical laboratories are directing research towards the development of very specific molecules, extending research time, which further reduces the number of quickly marketable drugs.

• The significant increase in investments required in research and development, as well as the high failure rate in Phase 3, also make the development and commercialization of new drugs costly:
  • In 2015, in France, the budget of pharmaceutical laboratories (self-financing) dedicated to research corresponded to 9.8% of the turnover of pharmaceutical companies, compared to only 4.8% for the automotive industry (Leem, February 2018 data).
  • Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, summarizes the investment challenges as follows: “For every euro spent on R&D, we see 70 cents returned” .

• The regulatory framework limits commercial development opportunities. Examples include:
  • The prohibition of advertising investments, except for OTC (“Over the Counter”) drugs for which promotional initiatives are accepted.
  • Following the Mediator scandal, the regulation of medical detailing has increased, notably, in 2013, with a decree on the transparency of conflicts of interest, since obliging health and cosmetics manufacturers to disclose gifts distributed to healthcare professionals and their identities.
  • The obligation to justify a real benefit for the patient and a genuine improvement in quality of life. As such, the market authorization procedures for many drugs are slowed down. This obligation for concrete results also hinders the reimbursement of marketed drugs. For example, in France, the delay between obtaining a marketing authorization (MA) and the arrival of a new drug averages 500 days compared to 100 days in Germany, exceeding the 180 days required by European regulations .

Overall, all these factors have a significant impact on the path from innovation to patient, described as “long (12 years on average), complex, and costly“ (Leem).

In this context, the medical representative profession seems to be experiencing a true “descent into hell” . Indeed, the sales forces of pharmaceutical laboratories have been subjected to particularly strong pressures, with, for example, the reduction in medical detailing staff (from 23,000 in 2008 to 12,000 in 2016). In parallel, investments dedicated to medical detailing have drastically decreased:

• Between 2003 and 2013, investments allocated to medical detailing thus decreased from 75% to 50% of total promotional expenses, while the number of medical representatives fell by nearly 30%.
• In 2008, 62.3% of total promotional expenses (€3.185 billion) were allocated to medical detailing. In 2016, this figure accounted for only 38.3% of the same total, which by then had fallen to €2.755 billion.

We will soon see how, in this context, the future of the medical representative profession is taking shape.

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• Sales Performance: How to Support Medical Representatives? (2/3)
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