Out-of-date working practices
Why is it that the pharmaceutical industry still attempts to push medications that are not cost effective ‘to the doctor’? Why do pharmacists devote so much time to economical purchasing of medication and much less to delivering quality care to patients? Why is confidence in the pharmaceutical sector so historically low?
After years of denial, the reasons are becoming clearer: the current working practices and business models in the pharmaceutical sector have reached the end of their lifecycle. We see this expressed in various ways:
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Health care insurers and government are focusing on cost management in health care and targeting public pharmacies, which have difficulty making their added value apparent;
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Regulatory bodies refuse reimbursement applications for new, more expensive patent medications that produce only incremental improvements;
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Prescribers have less influence over the choice of medication due to guidelines and refuse pharmaceutical industry representatives’ visits.
The industry itself saw this coming years ago, but it’s business was simply too lucrative to change tactics as long as no-one was forcing it to.
What’s wrong?
The obvious question is, “What’s so fundamentally wrong with the current business models in the pharmaceutical industry?” After all, they’ve been highly valued by the health care sector for years! One aspect is the industry’s failure in R&D. This means that there are few truly new innovative medications. However, Plexus believes that an even more important factor is that for much too long the pharmaceutical sector has focused exclusively on medications and not on the context and the process in which they are used! The industry’s involvement ended with the sale of the medication. Its use and role in a treatment were the responsibility of others.
Is this serious?
Yes, it is serious because this has led the industry to miss (despite having the requisite expertise) countless opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of the medication. The consequences of not being involved in the result achieved by the medication have included low adherence to the prescribed medication regimen, unsafe use, under-prescription, over-prescription and use that is not cost effective (no integration process and medication). This has been to the detriment of health on a large scale and has resulted in significant costs due to treatment failure and recovery. This failure to get involved has also meant the pharmaceutical sector has missed out on enormous potential for extra income.
What action should be taken?
Plexus is firmly convinced that the pharmaceutical sector can no longer distance itself from the patient process in which the medication plays a role. Value must be added at all stages of this health care process. This starts with preventing disease by offering more services and products in the field of prevention. Pharmaceutical companies can also add value by working together with doctors to organize complex therapies in an optimal way and by contributing, together with government and health care insurers, to optimum availability of medication for an acceptable price.
What is required?
For this change to take shape, the pharmaceutical world needs to dismantle the artificial barrier between itself and the world of health care. It needs to become part of the health care sector and stop watching from the sidelines. The figure below symbolizes this. We believe in entering into and strengthening partnerships with these stakeholders. It will take time to build up mutual confidence and respect, but with the barriers down and predictable, consistent behavior it will happen. Why? Because Plexus is convinced that it’s simply in everyone’s interests to offer the most cost effective care possible.
How can Plexus help achieve this?Using our unique combination of thorough knowledge of health care processes and medicine and our pharmaceutical knowledge of medications, we support pharmaceutical players in discovering the opportunities to improve patient care at every stage. We think outside the boxes that already exist and have the operational experience to realize solutions that all stakeholders benefit from. To demonstrate our involvement, we also like to get involved in the end result in practice: an effective collaboration!
Want to know more?Contact Daan Rooijmans:
T +31 (0)20 3010800
E info@plexus.nl