The Building Blocks of Engagement

The rise of specialty medicines designed to treat small patient populations with complex and rare conditions is having a profound effect on pharma field rep and doctor relationships. In 2023, the EMA approved 77 medicines, half of which had a new active substance never previously authorized. Specialty medicines now account for approximately 55 percent of global pharmaceutical spending, which is predicted to rise to 65 percent in 2025.

The trend towards highly specialized drugs is reshaping how biopharmas approach commercialization. Launches are increasingly smaller and more targeted. Thus, identifying and engaging the right healthcare professionals (HCPs) and key opinion leaders in these specific therapeutic areas is critical for a successful launch. In my opinion, future success will require deep data insights to pinpoint experts who can effectively advocate for and prescribe new treatments.

Real-time industry insights are invaluable for biopharmaceutical companies to identify the right experts, understand their needs, and engage with them meaningfully. However, our latest Pulse Field Trends Report reveals that field rep access to HCPs has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels. Today, only 45 percent of HCPs globally are accessible to biopharmas compared with 60 percent 18 months ago – with half restricting engagement to three or fewer companies. In the UK, HCP access now sits at 25 percent because of several underlying factors, including increased market consolidation, health system restrictions, growing patient loads, and the increasing diversity and complexity of modern medicine.

Despite this, biopharmas are finding new ways to make the most of their time with doctors. Increasingly, we’re seeing new models that prioritize relevance and timeliness over traditional measures, such as reach and frequency. Personalization, real-time communication channels, and relevant content are giving HCPs what they need when they need it. And, integrated customer touchpoints across sales, marketing, and medical are building high-quality, trusted relationships between field teams and HCPs.

Modern engagement for modern medicine
 

However, physicians are becoming more selective about the companies they interact with. Currently, half of accessible HCPs meet with three or fewer companies – and nearly 30 percent of those in specialties, including internal medicine, oncology, psychiatry, and urology, restrict access to just one company. This selective engagement is putting a greater emphasis on the need for a more strategic and personalized approach to HCP interactions.

Despite these access challenges, doctors are increasingly receptive to digital touchpoints. In the UK, for example, 79 percent of accessible HCPs were open to a mix of in-person and video interactions. Email communications are also being used more consistently. Indeed, it seems that the relationship between pharma field reps and doctors is evolving to a more service-oriented approach. Field reps play an important role in providing doctors with access to relevant, personalized information as and when required – even in the moment of care. And that requires the ability to share relevant, timely information via digital channels between in-person interactions. 

Veeva Pulse data shows that, when a compliant chat channel is available, HCPs initiate conversations 30 percent of the time. Field teams respond rapidly to their queries (on average, in just five minutes), and with twice the open rate compared with emails. Rather than cannibalizing in-person meetings, digital interactions have been proven to increase the number of total conversations between field reps and HCPs. 

To navigate access challenges and improve engagement, we’re seeing some field teams unify functions to act as one connected resource across sales, marketing, and medical. This new connected engagement model coordinates touch points across channels and roles to continuously build on the last interaction, helping companies overcome access barriers. 

As a result, commercial teams are evolving as valuable partners to HCPs. From educating key experts before launch to synchronizing field activity with digital advertising, field teams are strengthening engagement to improve treatment adoption.

Biopharmas have a renewed focus on prioritizing relevance and real-time communication over reach and frequency. A coordinated effort across sales, marketing, and medical provides HCPs with key updates and insights that build off the last interaction. This emphasis on quality builds lasting relationships with HCPs, ensuring innovative treatments reach the patients who need them the most.