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Covid-19 may have been a windfall for pharma companies. But not for those playing a supporting role in marketing these drugs.
Major hospitals have barred entry to “medical reps”, as they are popularly known, fearing that they could spread the infection as they visit different hospitals. The problem gets compounded as many doctors have also stopped their private practice. This has lead to a knowledge-gap due to the now defunct “product detailing” sessions and thinning prescriptions, which in turn is linked to the MR’s remuneration.
Digital play
The situation has increasingly led to pharma companies shelving their traditional marketing approach and reaching out to doctors directly via digital platforms.
And all of this has put the sales representatives under immense pressure, Rathesh G, joint secretary of Kerala Medical & Sales Representatives Association, told BusinessLine . “Due to this pressure, we are even forced to meet doctors on roadsides or in parking lots...We have taken up the issue with the Indian Medical Association. It has responded positively.”
A Kerala-based doctor, in a recent social-media post, pointed out, “meeting medical reps in car parks is highly unprofessional. If patients and their relatives can enter consultation rooms, why can’t medical reps if they comply with Covid protocols?”
What was once considered a traditional way of marketing medicines has rapidly changed in pandemic times, says Hans Lewis, Founder and CEO, DocMode.
“Left with no other option some pharma companies have gone in for digital transformation,” he says. Mumbai-based DocMode Health Technologies, with a focus on e-learning programmes for doctors and healthcare professionals, is offering pharma companies services to tackle the present situation.
“We developed this platform much before Covid. Now, we are offering this to doctors and pharma firms for ethical and unbiased marketing of their products,” he said. And pharma companies are adopting such marketing strategies. DocMode, for instance, garnered a 50 per cent increase in revenue during Covid times, confirms Lewis.
Virtual platforms
Rathesh says that pharma companies, including MNCs, are also developing virtual platforms to connect sales personnel with doctors. “From field, the nature of our job now has shifted to telemarketing. Direct calls from these virtual platforms with doctors are regularly monitored by companies and incentives to medical reps depend on the number of calls and duration,” he says. But doctors do not encourage such online interactions because that can cut into their time with patients.
A spokesman of the Federation of Medical and Sales Representative Association of India says MRs across the country were facing similar issues. But the situation was improving in regions where Covid cases were reducing and they are being allowed in hospitals.
While big pharma companies are going ahead with digital marketing initiatives, mid-size companies are adopting a wait-and-watch approach.
“The future is bleak for MRs if more companies go for digital marketing ways,” he says.
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