Though it might be difficult to fathom, the first so-called “digital natives,” or those who were born into such close contact with computers and other electronics that they know no other way of life, are now close to 40 years old. That’s how ingrained digital technology is in our society today.

Still, it has been widely apparent that the virtual environment we now live in has been disrupted over the last year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s been an intense shift from using technology as a convenience to relying on it as a necessity, including how we access healthcare. Technology was already pervasive and was everywhere we went. Now, we can’t go anywhere without it.

Even as the effects of the pandemic begin to wane, the impact of digital technology’s presence is not expected to downturn. As a result, expectations about how we live, work, and even play have shifted. For any professionals in a customer-facing industry, the “new normal” is not yet defined, and that might be the case for the foreseeable future.

However, this is no excuse for not meeting customers’ demands. Tremendous change is headed this way, and that change that must be embraced.

Some of the predicted future trends and challenges that the pharmaceutical industry is poised to face are covered here as part of a blog series that has also discussed the future of business partnerships and marketing and branding strategies.

Fewer, More Meaningful Office Visits

There’s every reason to believe that patients will decide that they can lead healthy lives without having to see a healthcare provider (HCP) in person for everything that ails them. That means a reduced frequency of office visits and, naturally, less access to patients. This will make the interactions that are had that much more significant, and perhaps, longer in duration. Ensuring that these limited interactions are meaningful will be key to the patient’s health and the provider-patient relationship. That’s a significant near-term challenge. Pharmaceutical professionals will need to be that much more confident that providers are keeping patients appropriately informed.

For the longer term, the concern is about other shifts that could offset the lack of access to HCPs, including concepts such as increased investment in medical education and direct patient or caregiver outreach. Either way, the method of how we interact with customers is going to shift.

Sales representatives can also expect a reduced role in the long term and could be supplemented by nurse educators, medical science liaisons, and others who can engage with the HCP system in order to drive change that will enhance patient care through fewer visits.

The New, Old Way to Launch Products

As more office encounters happen in a virtual capacity, so too will initial exposure to products. Marketing and sales professionals will likewise have to make the most out of these interactions while weighing the investment value of other communications areas, such as medical education, direct patient outreach, and “old-fashioned advertising.” Revisiting the approach to traditional engagement tools and messaging should be expected to influence product launches.

For those manufacturers who attempt to come into a new market moving forward, trying to ensure that clinicians are ready for products, and thereby having patients ready for products, will be delicate for a period of time. Will HCPs be willing to get patients onto a particular drug, moving from one treatment opportunity to another, when in-person visits could be less frequent? This will require some monitoring.

More flexibility could also be needed along the lines of overall commercializing. Staged or phased-in approaches to a launch, where the focus is on certain regions where access might be better, including access to clinicians and payers, should be a consideration. Partnerships could hold special value here in the sense that it could be the partnering company with the unique access or marketplace reach. Organizations will need to prioritize building on their strengths, and that inherently places more importance on partnerships because it allows for more strategic planning based on the companies’ pros and cons.

Payers, meanwhile, are becoming more effective at intervening on access to products, and a counterbalance to these trends will be important as well. Can your hub efforts support patients more effectively or will various external parties be more effective with payers in facilitating pull-through measures or in articulating outcomes that should make a difference on patients? There’s going to be pressure to sort this out.

From the patient perspective, it is important to remember that the pandemic brought with it tremendous loss of insurance, jobs, and, ultimately, continuity of care. New approaches to communication are necessary. A hybrid reality is likely, even as the pandemic hopefully subsides.

Keying in on KOLs

Similar to forging beneficial partnerships, collaborating with industry’s key opinion leaders (KOLs) will potentially alleviate some of the challenges with societal shifts that have impacted patient care.

Identifying appropriate KOLs is one thing, predicting someone’s willingness and availability to engage in your business is more involved. These professionals are typically inundated with requests for their time as everyone attempts to stay ahead of the curve on the information overload that is emerging from the scientific community. As such, being mindful of time spent recruiting KOLs needs to be considered as well from a productivity standpoint.

Approaching the best KOLs can help to enrich the experience and lead to more agreements than rejections. Identifying the best “asks” when engaging with KOLs is also important. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution; there are personas, if not egos, to manage. Some KOLs will be heavily driven by clinical burden, while others will be more willing to have a scientific discussion. Having the ability to profile individuals into various scenarios based on their makeup takes a unique talent, and customizing the types of initiatives that KOLs should be involved with requires a commitment to communication and listening when engaging these professionals, as well as sound judgment. If the first attempt at a pitch fails, there might not be a second chance. Developing long-term relationships often begins with a calculated short-term approach.

The Three Pillars

There’s been a lot of talk throughout the pharmaceutical industry about the potential for medical affairs to become a third marketing pillar alongside research and development and commercial business, or sales. This industry is a large, diverse ecosystem.

Medical affairs provide an ancillary service for these core functions. Drugs will always need to be developed and sold to support the mission of healthcare. At that intersection, there is a need for drugs to be used safely and effectively for the improvement of patients’ quality of life and survival, both at the individual and public health level. Medical affairs’ support can drive a stake in the ground as the incremental value that it brings to the table, as well as offer more freedom for the types of dialogues that can be held with KOLs — meaning that these professionals are positioned to better interact with KOLs and address their questions to aid their confidence when deciding to use a drug or not. KOLs will be valued assets to propagate any messages that are to be communicated throughout industry in a compliant manner. Any associated KOLs must believe in the science and understand safety and efficacy.