Medico-Marketing is mainly about advertising of pharmaceutical products. Medico marketing also known as Pharmaceutical Marketing, helps to regularly update doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals about the safety and effective use of new medical drugs and devices.

The WHO describes pharmaceutical advertising as “all details and persuasive activities carried out by pharmaceutical companies and suppliers, to impact the prescription, purchase, supply and use of drugs”.

The outcomes of Medico-Marketing rely upon the strategies or plans implemented for promotion. An efficient marketing management relies upon formulation of objectives, recognition of a targeted market, establishing a strategy to accomplish the goal and evaluation of promotion strategy at regular periods for evaluating the progress.

Pharmaceutical organizations implement two types of marketing strategies: 1) push stream and 2) pull stream. Push stream approach targets to impact decision prescribers (physician’s) by means of advertising approaches like detailing (Explaining about product), drug sampling, articles about benefits of product, conducting meetings with physicians etc. Pull stream approach is focused on end customers (Patient) and pressurizes doctors to suggest a specific drug upon patient’s demand.

Investment on Pharma Advertising Vs Pharma Research

Large pharmaceutical companies work more on selling their products rather than developing new products. According to London based medical journal BMJ, many prescription based companies are not investing resources on new drugs or branded drugs (Drugs which hold the patent are called branded drugs). Instead of investing on research it is more profitable for pharmaceutical companies to develop product pipeline of generic drugs(only marginally distinct from the branded drugs). According to BMJ Pharma companies are spending 19 times more on selling compared to research, for example if pharmaceutical companies are spending 1$ on research they are investing 19$ on selling their products.

Promotional Strategies Used by Pharmaceutical Companies

Detailing: Detailing is direct marketing to educate doctors regarding a company’s products in a hope that the doctor will suggest the same to patient’s more frequently. Pharmaceutical companies invest a lot of money on detailing.

Samples: Offering free drug samples to doctors have been found to trigger considerable increase in new prescriptions for the marketed drug.

Educational and Promotional Conferences

Sales representatives request physicians to conferences during which industry-paid doctors talk about the use of specific medication. These speakers are generally experts in their areas, which enhances the attention of the doctors about the particular product.

Promotional Mailings

Pharmaceutical organizations send voluntary promotional components to doctors’ clinics or hospitals. Generally, these brochures promote a drug’s advantages and favourably explain the outcomes of latest clinical studies, which are generally financed by the same organization.

Journal and Web Advertisements

These promotions are conventional promotional methods that offer an essential source of income for medical journals. The reliability of statements in these kinds of ads is controlled by the regulatory authorities like US FDA, MHRA, and DCGI etc. With respect to one research, journal advertising made the best return on expenditure of all other promotional techniques used by pharmaceutical organizations.

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

In 1997, US FDA released guidance that allowed pharmaceutical organizations to more simply promote to the consumers. Since that time, investing on these direct-to-consumer advertisements has almost doubled each year.

Career Opportunities in Medico Marketing

As we discussed earlier investment on sales promotional activities are increasing, simultaneously job opportunities are also on the rise. There is a huge scope and opportunity for those who want to enter the near recession free industry of pharmaceuticals and medical communications. Job titles such as Medico Marketing Executive, Clinical Research Physician, Medical Advisor, Medical Director, Medical Scientific Liaison etc are all involved in medico marketing. Here are some job responsibilities of a Medico Marketing Executive:

Job Responsibilities of Medico Marketing Executive

• Data exploration from various literature sources.
• Create Medico- Marketing suggestions reports for new product reviews and methods for marketed drugs.
• Provide training for sales and marketing team.
• Preparation of training guide, training slides for medical representatives.
• Exploring scientific data and supporting the marketing team to develop different advertising literatures like Visual Aids, articles etc.
• Managing medical concerns from outside customers, marketing team and sales team.

Pay Scale for Medico Marketing Executive in Different Nations (Units: USD Thousands)

James Lind Institute Singapore offers Professional Diploma in Medico-Marketing online training programs that can help you become a Medico-Marketing Professional. To know more about medico-marketing training programs available please click here:  http://www.jliedu.com/programs/detail/professional-diploma-in-medico-marketing