New pharma skills needed for GP commissioning changes
pharmafile | March 30, 2011 | Feature | Business Services, Sales and Marketing |Â Â NHS reforms, skills, trainingÂ
With GP-led commissioning taking the NHS into new territory, market access is facing a major shake up.
In January, one of the most radical reforms in the history of the NHS was presented to Parliament.
Under the new proposals, GPs will have unprecedented powers over the healthcare services. With their sweeping changes to the commissioning process, the government is sending a clear message: patient power and clinical decisions will shape the balance of the NHS for years to come.
For the pharmaceutical industry, the reforms mean big changes too. Instead of trusts, pharma will need to work directly with GP consortia.
The dialogue between the pharma industry and the NHS has been evolving for some time, with values such as honesty, trust and transparency central to their shared language.
But a novel set of market propositions that focus on value and measurable outcomes are likely to emerge from these changes.
To thrive in this new environment, the pharma industry will need to learn new skills.
Many questions remain over the reforms. The number, size and scale of GP consortia remains unclear.
Moreover, exactly how pharma will interact with them is largely a matter for speculation.
How will they want to work together, and what services will the consortia be looking for?
While not every GP is going to be involved in the running of the consortia, some GPs have expressed concern over the new role expected of them.
Being responsible for care commissioning and assessing the needs of the population with equality will require a raft of new skills for GPs. The ability to foster relations with local authorities and trusts, negotiate with public and private healthcare professionals, interpret outcomes data and even market services will all be important.
For the forward-thinking pharma company, these changes create intriguing new avenues of market access for those willing to partner, support or train consortia leaders. But to achieve it they will need executives with adaptive and flexible skill sets.
Indeed, the reforms represent an opportunity for pharma to explore and push boundaries in a directed and meaningful way.
Those companies that can help their customers navigate through the turbulence of change with a steely determination, and a commitment to improve patient care and maximise health outcomes – whilst achieving cost savings – stand to gain most.
Executives with the ability to drive change will be invaluable in this process.
Whatever pharma do offer, ensuring their services are tailored to particular regions will be crucial. Internal communications will be vital to avoid unnecessary duplication, to allow companies to share services that are working in one part of the country, and apply it elsewhere. Pharma companies will be keeping a close eye on ‘pathfinder’ consortia too. These early adopters may well be the people that are shaping the direction of the NHS.
One of the biggest fears for pharma is that commissioning under the current system will grind to a halt.
At the moment we’re in a period of transition. With the reforms two years away, there is a real risk that the PCTs will not commit to anything during this interim period. Nevertheless, there are likely to be new drugs that are to be launched and pharma still needs the NHS to buy in.
Proactive pharma companies could use this period of change as an opportunity to identify quick wins and address the issues that they’re currently facing, and to explain how they are dealing with these. Responsive executives with a results-driven mentality will be essential for the industry during this time.
One of the challenges pharma companies are currently facing is how to communicate effectively with the consortia. Many companies are adopting the view that their current contacts within Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are likely to still be involved with the consortia. While they may work for a different organisation and have new titles, their roles may remain largely unchanged.
Value-based pricing, which will replace the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation System (PPRS) and the role of NICE in drug appraisal, by 2014 will require new products to show value over and above existing drugs, in order to secure a premium selling price.
This is likely to be in at least one of three areas: the burden of the illness it treats, including its severity and level of unmet needs; the level of therapeutic innovation and finally, wider societal benefits.
These criteria will shape everything from drug trial design, the development of a brand’s value proposition and of course, the entire marketing and communications approach.
To succeed under these measures, pharma companies are recognising that the kind of individuals they need on their ‘frontline’ sales and market access roles will be very different from the person that has been a GP rep for many years previously.
The challenges that pharma faces in the short, medium and long term are going to be very different, and pharma will need access to the right skills to meet them.
It has a need to work with the NHS effectively, and to do this they need to find a win-win scenario.
In this brave new healthcare world, the successful companies will be those that adapt best to GP consortia, offering them the services they need while demonstrating value, outcomes, and regional benefit.
Darren Spevick is a director at RSA, a global life sciences executive search and interim management firm. For more information visit: www.theRSAgroup.com
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