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A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunate

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ly, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relatio

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

nship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

Another major issue is that too often the salesperson fails to expand his “contact base” as this n

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ext survey proves which results in vulnerability and exposure to competitive activity

Periodically, the Financial Times conducts a survey

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

of British industry to establish how companies go about their purchasing. The survey is very comprehensive, broken down into many kinds of product

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

s and services.

From a Sales Director’s perspective, these are very worrying statistics.

Customer size (Number of employees): Less tha

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

n 200

Average number of buying influencers: 3.43

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.72

Customer size (Number of

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

employees): 200 – 400

Average number of buying influencers: 4.85

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.75

Custom

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

er size (Number of employees): 401 – 1000

Average number of buying influencers: 5.81

Number of influencers visited by salespeople:

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

1.90

Customer size (Number of employees): 1001 +

Average number of buying influencers: 6.50

Number of influencers visited

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

by salespeople: 1.65

In essence, without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.

To-days clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be bu

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

siness-partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process.

Fact: It costs seven ti

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

mes as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one.

Are you making the most of your customer base? Answer the qu

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

estions below honestly and find out.

Question: 1. How many regular clients do you have?

2. Has that number

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

increased in the last twelve months?

3. How many of them have bought in the last three months?

4. Of those ‘regular clients’, how many have you

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

contacted in the last month?

5. Of those, in how many have you progressed upwards from the user/recommender?

6. With how many of them do you en

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

joy exclusivity i.e. preferred supplier status?

7. How many of your clients have bought more the ‘second’ time around than when they origin

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ally bought from you?

8. With how many of your regular clients have you conducted

an account review within the last six months?

Study your a

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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