Compliance updates
As commercial pharma people, we work in a highly regulated industry. Technology moves at pace and, like any other consumer, our medical customers adopt these new ways.
With that, compliance must keep up with change. Our Managing Director, David Browne, was pleased to attend an annual compliance update, centred around the UK’s ABPI code run by Sue Jameson of Alchemist, and hosted by EMIG. Sue took the delegates through key code changes and the rationale behind them.
It’s important to keep up to date with the code for a number of reasons but we do meet people who see compliance only as a burden, or even as something to fight against. We disagree ….
Compliance positives:
What is the positive of compliance? Like driving, you have a destination, you drive at the speed limit, and you arrive on time. You drive at the speed limit rather than way inside it (we don’t want to be uncompetitive) but you don’t speed.
Compliance consequences:
“But I’ll get there quicker if I speed!” …. But will you in the context of being lax with compliance?
The most obvious consequence is that you receive a complaint from either a competitor, or worse, a customer (more of this later) …. like the road, you never know where a speed camera may be! If you cut corners on compliance (speed) you risk losing time responding to that complaint, attending a tribunal or, worst of all, being audited: meanwhile you are metaphorically at a standstill at the roadside.
Trust, reputation and compliance:
Getting back to customer complaints, the other point is reputation. The industry has relatively low levels of trust from some HCPs but if you present balanced, referenced, fair information that is relevant and important to the customer, then you build trust. If your information appears less robust, is exaggerated or disbalanced, then that trust may evaporate and reputation will be diminished. This could have negative commercial consequences.
Summary
Ultimately, we must all remember, that at the end of this is a patient receiving a medicine. We need that to be the right choice by the doctor for that patient. To do that we have to ensure that we are clear of which patient is suitable, why them and how it is prescribed – all of that based on balanced information. From a marketing perspective we shouldn’t exaggerate …. With your medicine there will be differences to competitors and with customers there will be aspects that are more (or less) important to them. The point where larger product differences align with customers’ focus is what will help that choice. If we have compliant, fair materials we will build trust with HCPs who need that to support decisions with patients who in turn trust them.
If you’d like advice or support on building a robust, balanced but impactful marketing positioning and communication then talk to us at Hawk Pharma Consulting – please get in touch us to set up an initial appointment with no obligation. Drop us a line at our email info@hawkpharmaconsulting.com