Developing Managed Care Pull-Through Excellence

In today's pharmaceutical marketplace, companies not only have to fight to win product placement on Managed Care formularies but also to "pull through" the business and increase market share after a win. To benefit from formulary wins, savvy companies ensure that their sales forces and account management teams have the necessary skills and tools to pull-through demand for the favored products and increase sales.

This Best Practices, LLC research investigates pull-through challenges and the best practices that companies have developed to overcome them.

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Medical Device; Biotech; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Health Care; Research


Companies Profiled:
Abbott Laboratories; Alcon; Allergan; AstraZeneca; Bayer Healthcare; Boehringer Ingelheim; Daiichi Sankyo; Galderma; GlaxoSmithKline; Johnson & Johnson; Merck; Novo Nordisk; PerkinElmer; Pfizer; Sanofi-Aventis; Solvay Pharmaceuticals; Smith & Nephew; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Tibotec-Virco; Upsher-Smith; Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals; Taro; Caldera

Study Snapshot

This research will enable pharmaceutical, bio-pharma and medical device company leadership to identify program gaps, uncover insights and discover successful best practices to share with their employees.

The research involved an online survey of 33 Managed Care and Sales leaders at 24 leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. In addition, Best Practices, LLC, analysts conducted in-depth interviews with respondents from five participating companies to collect executive insights and harvest best practices on achieving pull-through. Topics included cover:

• Pull-through program types
• Targeted customer groups
• Program leadership
• Process excellence in pull-through
• Training
• Tools & templates used
• Education topics for healthcare providers
• Education topics for patients
• Education channels & media
• KOL management in pull-through
• Pull-through effectiveness metrics and measurement
• Resource levels for pull-through
• Top challenges
• Best practices

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2
Executive Summary 3
Research Overview 4
Research Objective, Methodology and Topic Areas 5
Benchmark Participants 6
Participant Job Titles 7
Participant Therapeutic Areas 8
Definitions 9

Key Findings and Insights 10
Pull-Through Programs and Education Topics 11
Targets, Tools and Tactics 12
Leadership, Process Excellence and Trainging 13
KOLs, Resources and Metrics 14
Top Challenges …………………………………………………………………… 15

Survey Results 16
Program Types, Targets, Tools and Leadership 17
Program Types 18
Impact of Program Types 19
Program Targets 20
Tool/Template Use 21
Tool/Template Effectiveness 22
Patient Adherence/Persistency Programs 23
Therapeutic Intervention Tactics 24
Pull-Through Leadership Roles 25
Evolving Managerial Roles 26
Views of Pull-Though Excellence and Preparedness 27
Rating Current Processes 28
Educator Importance 29
Best Education Topics and Channels 30
Effectiveness of HCP Education Topics 31
Effectiveness of Patient Education Topics 32
Channel Effectiveness 33
KOL Management in the Pull-Through Process 34
Interaction Tactics Effectiveness 35
Pull-Through Resources and Metrics 36
Anticipated Changes in Resources 37
Location of Pull-Through Employees 38
Pull-Through Metrics 39
Success Indicators 40
Key Challenges in Achieving Pull-Through Excellence 41.
Top Challenges 42
Field Coordination, Training and Momentum 43
Limited Physician Access/MD Ambivalence 44
Measuring Return on Investments 45
Resource Limits, Plan Support and Compliance 46

Best Practices on Pull-Through Effectiveness 47
Provider Outreach 48
Physician/Provider Focus 49
Messaging, Collateral and Communication 50
Method-Sharing 51
Goals, Measurement and Analysis 52
Using ROI to Rate Pull-Through 53
Building a Pull-Through Model 54
Internal and External Collaboration 55
Link Account Manager Compensation to Results 56
Collaborate on Joint Customer Calls 57
Process, People and Programs 58
Use District Managers to Maintain Momentum 59

About Best Practices, LLC 60

List of Charts & Exhibits

Usage of pull-through program types

• Impact of program types on pull-through effectiveness
• Customers targeted by pull-through programs
• Pull-through activities supported by tools & templates
• Tool/ template effectiveness
• Top 3 patient adherence/persistency programs
• Top 3 therapeutic intervention tactics
• Activity leadership
• Achievement of process excellence
• Top 3 topics for educating providers
• Top 3 topics for educating patients
• Effectiveness of channels.media for delivering customer education programs
• KOL interaction tactics
• Changes in resource levels in past two years
• Anticipated resource level changes for next two years
• Departmental locations of pull-through FTEs
• Metrics used to measure pull-through effectiveness
• Best indicators of program effectiveness
• Top 3 pull-through challenges
• Top 3 best practices