Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - November/December 2007 - (Page 48) 48 The Mix Nov/Dec 2007 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe routes is taken, successful partnerships will involve a mix of different stakeholders, such as physicians, professional groups, academic institutions, regulatory authorities, patient groups and others. The patient association is often pivotal in such a relationship. Though due diligence will reduce the overall number of possibilities, it will also create more targeted opportunities with appropriate ROI indices. ● Where are the best commercial and corporate opportunities to be found? Does the partnering opportunity offer potential at local, national, and European levels? ● Where is the patient group in its development? Partnering opportunities very often reflect the patient group life cycle — maximise your return by ensuring that your partnering proposal is appropriate for the life cycle phase and structure of the patient group with whom you are collaborating. ● Multi-partnering initiatives involving several companies are becoming more common; what do the SWOT and risk/benefit analyses show to be significant considerations? ● What is the best way to improve the quality and value of the relationships in your current partnering activity — through better allocation of existing resource or via new service offerings? ● Where can you find new links between seemingly disparate parts of your commercial plan and your current partnering programme? ● How can you improve the existing integration between the different partnering activities and the overall commercial plan? Over the long term, the patient role will continue to evolve and expand into wider healthcare issues involving policy-forming stakeholders; a few examples give some insight into possible opportunities. Investment index A sustainability investment research firm, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, has partnered with the Access to Medicine Foundation in the Netherlands to create an investment index1 that benchmarks pharmaceutical companies on their performance in delivering access to medicines in developing countries. The index, available to institutional investors, measures companies on eight criteria. It promises to drive improvements in pharmaceutical delivery of vital medicines, while also helping institutional investors analyse risks of index laggards and capitalise on opportunities of index leaders in their portfolios. With the growing awareness of the problem of patient adherence in EU market, how long before the financial analysts do something similar and work with a large umbrella patient group and factor in company response to patient adherence as a measure of share value? with patient groups in disease awareness campaigns. Giving patient associations the necessary skills and knowledge to apply for such grants can help address the important question of patient group sustainability and improve transparency on funding.3 A transparent future This is a time when the industry is measured and judged on its behaviour and long-term business growth is closely linked to enhanced stakeholder perception. Certainly, today’s patient has a greater role in the treatment decision-making process and partnerships between patient groups and the pharmaceutical industry provide mutual benefits. Patient communication programmes must be ethical and transparent but also linked to key business drivers. If your products could talk, what would they say about these points? References Regulatory support Because the European Commission and other institutions with a Community remit (such as the EMEA) are working far more closely with patient groups, a knowledge transfer and capacity building approach with patient groups can be beneficial in identifying appropriate partnering activities linked to these stakeholder groups. For example, criteria2 now exist that ensure that the EMEA works only with patient groups fulfilling certain criteria in future considerations over new medicines — an important element in any commercial and regulatory strategy. And the health grant competitive tendering programme offered by the EC’s Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG Sanco Health) gives companies a new partnering opportunity 1. www.access-to-medicine.org 2. Developed by the EMEA with input from European patient groups, these criteria comprise legitimacy, mission/objectives, activities, representativity, structure, accountability and transparency. 3. www.ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/ index_en.htm About the Author Nicks Hicks (nick@commutateuronline.com) is principal of Commutateur, a healthcare coaching and communications consultancy. http://www.access-to-medicine.org http://www.ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/
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