Marketing Legacy Molecules the RIGHT Way

With a dry drug pipeline, Indian Pharma is often left with Legacy Molecules (LMs) to sustain in the market. LMs have lasted in the market for decades, but relying on the Legacy of this molecule is not helping Pharma achieve the expected results. Over the years, the requirements and behavior of the doctors have evolved, and Pharma has failed in realizing them. It continues to harp its audience with the traditional marketing ways.

Current Strategies

• Scientific detailing through seminars: Marketers routinely organize high-profile seminars and conferences at Star Hotels. Although great for networking, these events offer little in terms of knowledge for physicians to take back home.
• Employing armies of MRs: Pharma persistently deploys a huge salesforce to reach out to doctors for legacy brands. In fact, field force activities witness the highest resource allocation for LM. But for all the money and manpower invested, an MR gets less than 5 minutes with the physician.
• Incentivising prescriptions: Most LMs have been in the market for a long time, and their patents have expired. Competitors must have already taken advantage of this, launching their versions of the molecule, making the competition stiff. Sometimes you find nearly 10 brands of the same molecule. On the other hand, competitors ensure that their drug’s efficacy levels are equivalent to that of your drug. With limited choice to garner physicians’ attention, Pharma is forced to resort to offering incentives to doctors to gain their brand loyalty. The introduction of the UCPMP Code (Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices) has, however, made it difficult for Pharma to rely on traditional practices as they are considered unethical today.
• Offline CMEs: Marketers also offer CME courses with the aim of educating physicians in their therapy area, adding value to their CV. Although such courses are cumbersome to plan and have limited reach as it is inconvenient for doctors based in remote places to attend them.

Conventional approach to marketing legacy molecules is increasingly unsustainable, huge outlays and executional challenges being major areas of concern. A new approach is urgently needed.

Doing it Right – Best Practices to Imprint your Legacy

1. Find your special place: What is it that your molecule stands for? What’s its unique value proposition? Is it the best first line treatment? Are there new indications evident from new clinical trials? Is there a special population that it is most effective on? Look for that X factor that will help you retain physicians’ interest levels and your market share.
2. Choose the perfect pitch: The best way to pitch your brand is to evoke feelings of trust, and leverage its position of authority and experience, something that newbies can’t compete with. But, to arrive at the right pitch, you need to know exactly what pain-points are not being addressed and how doctors’ perception about your brand has evolved over time.
3. Get targeting right: Your target audience may change according to the current positioning and marketing pitch. Attempt to tap a large pool of specific audience groups for best marketing outcomes.
4. Maintain constant connect: Out of sight definitely means out of mind in today’s hyper-connected age and this applies to physicians as well. Top-of-mind recall is a function of various touchpoints, consistency in messaging at each point and a quick response to queries and concerns. Although some companies have moved to digital their attempts often seem half-hearted, as domestic players continue to allocate <1% of their total marketing spend on online marketing, a digital-first mindset in Pharma is missing.

Infocenters – Docplexus’ Digital Content Marketing Solution for Legacy Molecules

Content marketing on Docplexus facilitates continuous and exceptional engagement. With more than 3,80,000 doctors consuming information on our portal, the reach and impact of your marketing are untouchable.

Docplexus Infocenters: Infocenter is an exclusive micro-site for your brand on Docplexus. With deep insights about doctors’ behavior, we help you create tailor-made content for your LM based on the physician’s preference on your Infocenter.  For instance, new information about the LM can be presented as an article or a video. Infocenter is an end-to-end marketing solution that begins with devising content strategy for your specific marketing objective and ends with providing a detailed analytical report to help understand impact of your marketing campaign and chart future course of action.

Contact us to learn more about infocenter and how you can use them to accelerate brand outreach on Docplexus – the largest online community of allopathic doctors.