The Employment Market
Perhaps the greatest benefactors of the global financial crisis in the pharmaceutical sector are Health Economists. As governments struggle to control healthcare expenditure in the face of increasingly ageing populations, this profession is witnessing a boom. This is fuelled in addition by growth in emerging markets.
Payers are seeking more “bang for buck” as the cost of innovation rises. This has meant that there is an increasing demand to include health economics data at an earlier point during the assessment phase. The importance of health technology assessment bodies such as the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) of England and Wales and Germany’s IQWiG is growing. So great is the impact of these authorities that some companies are even looking to include health economics data from Phase I of their clinical trials.
Payers will not shy away from the economic arguments, but many have said that if companies can prove the benefits of their drugs, they will receive adequate reward. This is true of Germany, the UK and France. At the same time, however, Sweden may be taking another path, adding a reference pricing system to an already globally acknowledged value based pricing system and sparking the fear that this dual mechanism may spread. Knowledge of how both cost control tools operate is therefore a real asset to healthcare economists.
Manufacturers are assessing these changes and have accordingly changed their sales techniques. For example, the ageing concept of promoting products through traditional field-based sales forces is being eroded in favour of a more scientific and economically focussed approach. Finding the business is all very well, but new regulatory and economic considerations require a different method. Companies are therefore turning towards market access professionals – the more globally minded, with regard to pricing and reimbursement, the better.
Against the backdrop of emerging markets, this is becoming self evident. Companies require fresh expertise when launching products into markets with which they are unfamiliar. There is a need for market access personnel not just to know the route to market, but also to build the required relationships and understand the needs of the key players. In a sense they are absorbing the position of the sales ground force and built on it.
The ranks of Health Economists are not being swelled by the recent focus on market access alone, however. There is growing evidence that Pharmacists are being placed under increased economic pressure as their margins are eroded through the introduction of more intense cost controls. This situation has not been helped by the seemingly ongoing reduction in patient contact - some of this caused by the growth of the internet pharmacy sector. As a result, a trend has started where many Pharmacists are turning towards the health economics sector, where they can use their expertise to advise on the healthcare pathway, with insider knowledge.
Priyam will be attending the ISPOR Annual European Congress in Madrid in November. Please feel free to get in contact if you are also attending.
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