Customer valuation is critical to pharmaceutical brand strategy as it informs several key decisions such as messaging, resource allocation, services offering allocation, etc. In simple / well established therapeutic areas, customers can be valued based on prescription volumes. However, often the competitive space presents complexities such as multiple classes of medication, combination therapies and an evolving product landscape. The disease state can present complexities such as comorbidities, multiple closely related diagnoses, potential off-label prescribing etc. There can be complexities that arise out of data availability, or lack thereof: for instance, launching into a market where competitors are distributing through Specialty Pharmacy. Further, depending on the therapeutic area, customers may be physicians, group practice accounts, hospitals or even Integrated Health Systems. In such cases, simple techniques may not be adequate.
Kedar Naphade, Senior Principal at Axtria, Juhi Parikh, Associate at Axtria, have written a paper for the PMSA Journal, which discusses the use of more complex techniques for customer valuation. Some of these methods have been used in recent years, while others are new ways of using the same data sources.
These techniques include:
- Patient segmentation & physician segmentation based on claims and Rx data
- Predictive analytics based on claims and Rx data to perform valuation
- Integration of epidemiological data into claims-based valuation
- Novel primary research techniques, integration of predictive analytics based on primary research
- Nuanced valuation of hospitals, group practices, and health systems.
The paper also describes case studies where some of these techniques were successfully applied, resulting in key insights which in some cases were unanticipated and counterintuitive.
The complete text of the article is available in the Spring 2015 issue of the PMSA Journal.