Shape the future of consumer health.
Our Channel Dynamics data comparing engagement in the 30-day period to 19 April versus the same period last year, as we would expect, shows that face-to-face interactions of all types have been minimized as pharmaceutical and life sciences companies recognized early on in the pandemic that their employees’ role in moving between health facilities and health professionals was a possible danger and acted to reduce these interactions rapidly.
In some countries, such as China, South Korea, Italy and Spain, remote engagement, which includes e-detailing, e-meetings, phone detailing, email and postal communications, rose to compensate. The question now, of course, is what remote engagement is appropriate, and when?
In our qualitative research, IQVIA Consumer Health asked HCPs whether they were comfortable with remote engagement and what they saw as the benefits of this type of interaction.
Exhibit 1: Key benefits of remote-engagement compared to face-face discussion according to HCPs (Source: IQVIA eDetail Follow-up Research, 2016-17)
They gave us several reasons (see Exhibit 1), but two key themes emerge:
If we focus on a key channel for consumer health – the pharmacy – we see that how pharmacists interact with OTC companies has radically changed, as have the categories that they most recommend.
Pharmacists are currently reluctant to interact face-to-face with sales representatives, meaning OTC companies have to engage with them remotely, such as through e-detailing, which is most favoured, phone detailing, and in some countries, e-meetings (China) and email (USA)**. Despite alternative promotional tools, there has been a net decline in overall promotional activity in a number of countries.
In terms of what pharmacists are advising consumers to buy, recommendations for vitamins, analgesics, and upper respiratory tract infection remedies have all increased dramatically and, moreover, pharmacists are generally more interested then other healthcare professionals in patient education training.
With the evidence of an increase in remote engagement and with many receptive to this, IQVIA Consumer Health has identified seven key factors to successfully engaging remotely (see Exhibit 2).
Shape the future of consumer health.
It is undeniable that there is a revolution underway in pharmacy
Covid-19 & Consumer Health: Navigating the new reality will provide you with some context and areas to consider as your business reacts to the COVID-19 outbreak and the new reality it is shaping.