-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
A-I
J-Z
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more -
Middle East & Africa
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more
Regions
-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
Europe
-
Middle East & Africa
-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
Europe
Europe
- Adriatic
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Deutschland
- España
- France
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italia
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more -
Middle East & Africa
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more
SOLUTIONS
-
Research & Development
-
Real World Evidence
-
Commercialization
-
Safety & Regulatory Compliance
-
Technologies
LIFE SCIENCE SEGMENTS
HEALTHCARE SEGMENTS
- Information Partner Services
- Financial Institutions
- Global Public Health
- Government
- Patient Associations
- Payers
- Providers
THERAPEUTIC AREAS
- Cardiovascular
- Cell and Gene Therapy
- Central Nervous System
- GI & Hepatology
- Infectious Diseases and Vaccines
- Oncology
- Pediatrics
- Rare Diseases
- View All
Impacting People's Lives
"We strive to help improve outcomes and create a healthier, more sustainable world for people everywhere.
LEARN MORE
Harness the power to transform clinical development
Reimagine clinical development by intelligently connecting data, technology, and analytics to optimize your trials. The result? Faster decision making and reduced risk so you can deliver life-changing therapies faster.
Research & Development OverviewResearch & Development Quick Links
Real World Evidence. Real Confidence. Real Results.
Generate and disseminate evidence that answers crucial clinical, regulatory and commercial questions, enabling you to drive smarter decisions and meet your stakeholder needs with confidence.
REAL WORLD EVIDENCE OVERVIEWReal World Evidence Quick Links
See markets more clearly. Opportunities more often.
Elevate commercial models with precision and speed using AI-driven analytics and technology that illuminate hidden insights in data.
COMMERCIALIZATION OVERVIEWCommercialization Quick Links
Service driven. Tech-enabled. Integrated compliance.
Orchestrate your success across the complete compliance lifecycle with best-in-class services and solutions for safety, regulatory, quality and medical information.
COMPLIANCE OVERVIEWSafety & Regulatory Compliance Quick Links
Intelligence that transforms life sciences end-to-end.
When your destination is a healthier world, making intelligent connections between data, technology, and services is your roadmap.
TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEWTechnology Quick Links
CLINICAL PRODUCTS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
COMPLIANCE, SAFETY, REG PRODUCTS
BLOGS, WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES
Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.
DISCOVER INSIGHTSTHE IQVIA INSTITUTE
An in-depth exploration of the global healthcare ecosystem with timely research, insightful analysis, and scientific expertise.
SEE LATEST REPORTS
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
-
IQVIA Connected Intelligence™
-
IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™
-
IQVIA AI Assistant
-
Human Data Science Cloud
-
IQVIA Innovation Hub
-
Decentralized Trials
-
Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices
WHO WE ARE
- Our Story
- Our Impact
- Commitment to Public Health
- Code of Conduct
- Environmental Social Governance
- Privacy
- Executive Team
NEWS & RESOURCES
Unlock your potential to drive healthcare forward
By making intelligent connections between your needs, our capabilities, and the healthcare ecosystem, we can help you be more agile, accelerate results, and improve patient outcomes.
LEARN MORE
IQVIA AI is Healthcare-grade AI
Building on a rich history of developing AI for healthcare, IQVIA AI connects the right data, technology, and expertise to address the unique needs of healthcare. It's what we call Healthcare-grade AI.
LEARN MORE
Meet the IQVIA AI Assistant
Your new expert analyst is here. Be at the forefront of data-driven decision-making with a new generative AI tool that enables you to interact with our products and solutions like never before. Get results you can trust, faster.
LEARN MORE
Your healthcare data deserves more than just a cloud.
The IQVIA Human Data Science Cloud is our unique capability designed to enable healthcare-grade analytics, tools, and data management solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose global data at scale.
LEARN MORE
Innovations make an impact when bold ideas meet powerful partnerships
The IQVIA Innovation Hub connects start-ups with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners. Together, we can help lead the future of healthcare with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners.
LEARN MORE
Proven, faster DCT solutions
IQVIA Decentralized Trials deliver purpose-built clinical services and technologies that engage the right patients wherever they are. Our hybrid and fully virtual solutions have been used more than any others.
LEARN MORE
IQVIA Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices
Empowering patients to personalize their healthcare and connecting them to caregivers has the potential to change the care delivery paradigm.
LEARN MOREWORKING AT IQVIA
Our mission is to accelerate innovation for a healthier world. Together, we can solve customer challenges and improve patient lives.
LEARN MORELIFE AT IQVIA
Careers, culture and everything in between. Find out what’s going on right here, right now.
LEARN MORE
WE’RE HIRING
"Improving human health requires brave thinkers who are willing to explore new ideas and build on successes. Unleash your potential with us.
SEARCH JOBSBlog
The Expanding Commercial Model: IVD Commercial Outsourcing - Acceleration during COVID-19
Oct 07, 2020
Today’s world of COVID-19 shows a microcosm of the In Vitro Diagnostics world. With scientific discovery and technologies improving at an ever-increasing rate, the IVD market, specifically the COVID-19 test development space is becoming very crowded. “In March, the FDA issued a policy to allow developers of certain serological tests to begin to market or use their tests once they have performed the appropriate evaluation to determine that their tests are accurate and reliable. These measures were taken to facilitate test capacity ramp-up during the pandemic (Emergency Use Authorization “EUA”). Since the FDA issued the policy, over 70 test developers have notified the agency that they have serological tests available for use. Over 500 tests addressing COVID-19 are available in the market or in development.
Many IVD companies are now looking for outsourced solutions that can quickly yield commercial access, cut through the noise and gain that “first mover” advantage. This requires a built-in infrastructure that can identify high priority customer targets, and also enable feet on the street so they can start to differentiate and gain user experience with their test.
Building a commercial infrastructure takes time, a commitment to the strategy, and more importantly, execution. After all, best laid plans are nothing without execution. Building a commercial infrastructure takes time, and time is money.
While this model has historically been more accepted and common in the pharmaceutical space, medical device and diagnostics companies are realizing the benefits of exploring and leveraging outsourced commercial sales and marketing capabilities, especially during the pandemic. Solutions have been proven to be more cost effective, flexible, and allow companies to fill their skill gaps without the immediate permanent investment.
Today many companies are finding themselves in discussions about the best way to navigate the COVID-19 commercial landscape; health care providers are not always accepting sales reps, and many hospitals continue to limit non-essential personnel. More and more, IVD companies are exploring how to navigate today’s challenges through outsourced commercial solutions in order to be ready to shift quickly within the changing landscape.
Within the IVD space, the drivers for consideration of outsourcing Contract Sales and Medical Solutions include (Figure 1):
- Cost Effectiveness – integrating services for market sizing, sales forces sizing, alignment and targeting with contract sales allows reduction of internal resources and integrated pricing.
- Commercial Effectiveness – while many companies have launched multiple products, many new companies have limited experience launching into certain markets. Utilizing a commercial solutions partner that has launched hundreds of products and can combine this expertise with relevant data sources, can maximize critical launch activities, and create efficiencies.
- Flexibility – With product life cycles decreasing, and faster regulatory pathways through EUAs allowing companies to quickly entering similar markets with competitive products, companies need to be flexible to match spend with revenues. To be able to ramp up and down quickly to maximize sales and market trends is critical. Contracts must have built in flexibility to increase, decrease or pivot to multiple call points, reducing internal burden of staffing and allowing companies to focus on strategy.
- Innovative Technologies – Opportunities exist to access and leverage advanced CRM technology and platforms through a highly-qualified partner, without new internal investments.
- Skill Specialization – Skill gaps can be filled by hiring specific experts that can complement existing teams and members.
Figure 1: Drivers of Commercial Outsourcing
Some of the more frequently applied commercial solutions include the following:
- “Hybrid” Sales Reps supported by built-for purpose technology and state-of-the art training.
- Field Resources that complement sales representatives
- Information-Enabled Agile Deployment.
- Field Employee Relations expertise.
These solutions help IVD companies address key questions and concerns pertaining to the current Commercial Model and employees:
- How do I keep HCPs and laboratories engaged in a compliant and flexible manner when I have little or no face-to-face access? How do I fight for bandwidth?
- How do I create the right policies to protect public safety and employees while meeting business needs?
- Do I need specialized field resources to meet unique HCP and laboratory needs during the time of COVID-19?
- How do I decide when and where to re-deploy and pullback as the situation evolves?
The landscape and pressures around effective product commercialization have been changing even before COVID-19, but especially now, companies are looking to enter the market with new, innovative tests quickly, many without an existing local or global sales infrastructure in place. Others require a need to supplement their existing field forces with medical resources to help navigate some of the more complex pathways, particularly in the field of cancer testing and personalized medicine. In just the breast cancer market alone there are over 15 companies that offer BRCA testing. For companies to differentiate their products, they need a concise medical message and an integrated commercial solution.
Outsourcing to an experienced commercial solutions team can allow for an expedited process of building a sales and clinical educator team that facilitates a more flexible cost structure; critical, especially today. While some IVD companies still hesitate to rely on external partners for the commercialization of their products, others are embracing this concept, realizing the ability to find technically skilled and knowledgeable teams, and are taking advantage of the benefits associated with commercial outsourcing solutions (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Outsourcing Sales – Key Benefits
With support from an expert team such as IQVIA, integrated solutions can be available immediately upon product approval, to avoid delays in commercialization and to connect commercial approaches across regions on the global stage. What makes IQVIA Contract Sales and Medical Solutions unique is that we are driven by a deep level of data, information, and expertise that is unparalleled. Our MedTech organization is home to over 50 experts solely focused on understanding the In Vitro Diagnostics market; this expertise complements and augments the functional expertise that makes up the core of our IQVIA MedTech strength. Combined, they enable us to identify the most valuable opportunities – and then leverage leading technology, our extensive expertise and expansive proprietary knowledge to implement efficient and cost-effective solutions that demonstrate the best return on investment for our customers. IQVIA can build sales/medical teams on all current CRM platforms, but also has its own “built for healthcare” CRM that is easily integrated and allows for “future proofing” the technology solution, to grow as you grow.
To discuss trends, opportunities, and solutions in the area of contract sales, please contact Chris Chalmers at Chris.Chalmers@iqvia.com.