Fearless pharma blogger Maxine Vaccine asks why so many business presentations communicate about as well as a cellphone on ‘silent’ in a bottomless pit with no battery.

Presentation is supposed to be what all of us business types are really good at. Getting an audience engaged, holding their attention, winning their trust, putting your message across. Actors are trained in voice projection and communication skills – in making their presence felt. Verily, it is not rocket science. But when business people need to address an audience, what dramatic strategy do they employ? PowerPoint.

Recently, Microsoft PowerPoint celebrated 25 years of boring audiences to tears at corporate events worldwide. It’s the business equivalent of your friends inviting you round to see their holiday slides.

Some PowerPoint presentations, inevitably, are worse than others. A screen filled with the words that are being read out to you is a world of tedium. A screen filled with facts and figures you can barely read, forcing you to ignore the speaker’s voice while you struggle to extract the salient facts, should be banned under international law. And a screen where words and icons move around, and acronyms spell themselves out like electronic cheerleaders... words fail me. As, apparently, they do the speaker.

That’s the crux of it. PowerPoint detracts from the integrity and force of human presentation. It makes you choose between listening and reading. However slickly the graphics move, the result is a static audience experience in which the message is drained of energy. Which is why it’s the presentation mode of choice for corporate bores and fakers everywhere.

Another world is possible. Use relevant images, not printed words, to illustrate your presentation. Restrict your screen text to a few crucial facts and quotes. Better still, give your audience something unexpected: a dramatic role play, a practical demonstration, a staged encounter with a heckler, a memorable video clip. If the context is too serious and professional for such tactics, then just talk. We’re supposed to be good at that.

Maxine Vaccine is keen to receive your feedback on these and other pharma industry issues. Be nice (but don’t be NICE)!

Biopharmaceutical company Genzyme, part of Sanofi, has appointed William ‘Bill’ Sibold as Head of Multiple Sclerosis and Rogério Vivaldi as Head of Rare Diseases.

These two businesses make up Genzyme’s core focus following its integration with Sanofi.

David Meeker, Genzyme’s President and CEO, commented: “These appointments are a critical step in launching the new Genzyme. Bill and Rogério are dynamic leaders with the experience, energy, vision and commitment to patients needed to move us forward.”

Bill Sibold has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for two decades, primarily in commercial roles – including responsibility for the MS drugs Avonex and Tysabri. In eight years at Biogen Idec he rose to become Senior Vice President of US Commercial. He joins Genzyme from Avanir Pharmaceuticals, where he was the Chief Commercial Officer.

“Our goal is to build a world-leading multiple sclerosis franchise,” said Meeker. “Bill’s substantial commercial experience and his deep knowledge of the MS field will be critical to the launch of Lemtrada and Aubagio, two investigational therapies with the potential to transform the lives of people living with MS.”

Rogério Vivaldi joined Genzyme in 1997; his roles have included President of the company’s Renal and Endocrinology Business and President of Genzyme Latin America. As a doctor, he became a recognised expert on the rare Gaucher disease and its treatment.

“Rogério’s experience as a physician treating Gaucher patients in Brazil and his subsequent work in building our rare disease business in Latin America will provide both continuity and an energising new beginning for our global rare disease business,” noted Meeker.

Based in Massachusetts, US, Genzyme specialises in biopharmaceutical therapies for rare and debilitating diseases. As part of Sanofi, it benefits from the commercial reach of a leading global pharmaceutical company.

Generic manufacturer Mylan has agreed a $17.5 million deal with Pfizer for the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise a portfolio of respiratory products.

As part of the deal, Mylan will have licensing rights to Pfizer’s generic equivalent to GSK’s Advair and Seretide.

Heather Bresch, Mylan President, says the agreement offers a “significant opportunity for our generics business”.

The agreement will also see Mylan retaining staff at Pfizer’s respiratory inhalation development team at Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent. Other former Pfizer staff will be located in Cambridge.

Under the terms of the agreement Mylan will have rights to Pfizer’s dry powder inhaler (DPI) technology platform, as well as the opportunity to negotiate on existing compounds during different stages of their development in the Pharma giant’s pipeline.

Mylan will have to pay the costs for any remaining development and commercialisation for the transferred products. Additional payments will also be made once the deal is completed, depending on the regulatory and commercial success of the portfolio.

Advair Diskus and Seretide Diskus are inhaled fixed-dose combinations of Fluticasone Propionate and Salmeterol which are delivered via a DPI and used to treat asthma and COPD.

On completion of the deal, Mylan with gain the exclusive commercialisation rights for Seretide in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the EU and European Free Trade Association countries. The two companies will have the co-promotion rights to the product in the rest of the world.

New research shows that SME growth provides the best prospect for economic recovery in the UK. But, as private equity firm ECI notes, finding the cash to reach out to global partners and markets can be a critical hurdle.

With continued pressure on governments across the Western world to reduce their expenditure, together with sustained macro-economic uncertainty and a tightening of bank funding, times are not necessarily easy for the average healthcare company – which often relies on the public purse for reimbursement and debt funding for growth. One might therefore expect the short-term outlook for growth to be somewhat muted, despite the backdrop of positive longer-term demographic drivers of demand.

Hence it is interesting that a recent survey of UK SME businesses by ECI Partners, a UK-based midmarket private equity firm, has found executives to be generally positive about growth prospects over the next 12 months, with 74% of respondents anticipating headcount growth and 60% expecting double-digit turnover growth.

The results met with a warm response from the Government, with Mark Prisk, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, saying: “It’s good news that despite a tough few months, nearly three-quarters of the SMEs surveyed by ECI are looking to recruit over the next year and half expect to see substantial profit growth in that period. Up and down the country, it is Britain’s SMEs that are driving our economic recovery.”

Reaching out

This year, the survey conducted each summer by ECI Partners gained responses from a total of 246 chief executives from UK growth companies from a range of sectors with turnover between £10m and £200m. The results paint a positive picture against the gloomy economic backdrop of the Eurozone crisis and sluggish UK economy, and suggest that there remains growth potential amongst SME businesses – which account for around a third of UK private sector employment.

Steve Tudge, a Managing Director of ECI, commented: “Despite the barriers to growth, which are principally cited as a weaker macro-environment and funding constraints, we continue to be optimistic about the prospects for good mid-market companies.”

Executives see the key growth drivers to be increasing international sales – with Europe and the USA remaining the dominant international markets, though India and China are becoming more important – and organic growth through investment in sales and marketing and new product development. Over 40% of companies are also planning to increase their use of overseas suppliers to improve their margins.

Internal cash flows are viewed as the most likely source of funding for this growth, though around half of respondents say they are likely to seek bank debt within the next 12 months (despite continued complaints about its cost and due diligence requirements) and around 40% are also likely to look at private equity backing. Fewer than 10% of companies see the public markets as accessible, perhaps reflecting the recent volatility and liquidity issues associated with the AIM market.

Healthcare respondents are less bullish about high growth than their peers in other sectors, and are noticeably less positive about growth than they were last year. This no doubt reflects, in part, the political uncertainty surrounding the current UK healthcare reforms and the public sector spending constraints that are impacting on the health and social care sectors.

Despite this, companies remain more confident of raising growth financing – and of raising it from private equity firms, with over 50% saying that was a likely consideration over the next year.

Financing growth

What does all this mean for SME healthcare businesses in the UK? The sector certainly faces challenges in responding to Government spending cuts, which are tending to put pressure on margins if not always on volumes.

However, opportunities for growth remain amidst these challenges, particularly for companies who are able and willing to venture beyond the UK in order to seek new customers and cheaper suppliers.

Of course, this internationalisation can put a strain on smaller businesses, which may lack the scale to fully support an international infrastructure. Private equity groups with experience and expertise in this process can potentially offer support to management teams in this position – whether by making introductions, sharing best practice or simply financing the required infrastructure.

There are significant sums of capital available for investment from the UK private equity industry, and there remains an appetite to invest in market-leading healthcare businesses. Thus private equity should be considered seriously as an option by management teams in the healthcare industry who are looking to fund growth to help their companies succeed in the current economic environment.

ECI is a private equity group that has been investing in mid-market growth businesses for over 35 years. It invests across sectors, with a focus on UK and Irish companies. Healthcare companies in its current portfolio include a primary care provider (Harmoni), assisted living specialists (Premier Bathrooms, DLP) and medical software companies (Clinisys, Ascribe).

The Government needs to do more to support life sciences in the UK and create an environment where the industry can flourish, a new survey has found.

RSA’s The UK Life Sciences Leaders’ Survey 2011 revealed worries over the NHS reforms, medicine pricing and reimbursement, employment issues and the cost of research amongst its leaders.

Nick Stephens, CEO of RSA, says the Government “urgently needs to do more to ensure that education, regulation, access to medicines and the NHS research base align to support the industry’s continued contribution to the UK economy”.

The report is the second annual survey of industry bosses. Last year the general feeling was of optimism with leaders believing the recently elected coalition Government would improve the business environment.

But twelve months later the mood has changed with results finding leaders claim the UK is not competing effectively globally, creating opportunities for early phase/smaller companies or making the most of its unique selling points: the NHS and skills in innovation and discovery.

Leaders also raised concerns about the increasing cost of working in the UK, the implication of R&D as a result of the NHS reforms, the regulatory burden on operations and the process from development to market. They also advised that fiscal and tax incentives should be given to SMEs to help their growth and the UK compete globally.

Worries were also raised about the introduction of value-based pricing. However, in contrast, health technology assessments were broadly welcomed as a means of enhancing value and meeting therapeutic requirements, the report found.

During the tough economic environment, the survey found that leaders would focus on innovation, creating flexible organisations and processes, and refocusing research and development to weather the current storm.

In a perfect world, leaders revealed they would investing in R&D and make the healthcare sector, regulatory and commercial environment work closer together to achieve better outcomes for patients and the pharmaceutical industry.

Stephen Whitehead, CEO, ABPI, says the survey shows more support is needed for biopharmaceutical companies in the ever-changing NHS. “There is much that the Government has done to support the industry, particularly through the Growth Review and the Office for Life Sciences,” he said. “But we need to build on this as part of a continuing relationship with NHS and Government to explore how unnecessary bureaucracy can be eliminated from the healthcare system so that new treatments can reach patients as quickly as possible.”

About 650 jobs will be saved at Pfizer’s R&D plant in Sandwich, Kent (pictured) – 300 more than previously announced in June.

So far, 800 staff members have left their positions at the Discovery Park, with a further 700 expected to leave by the end of 2012, with 250 employees relocating to other UK sites, said the company.

The pharmaceutical company announced in February that the research and development facility in east Kent will close, which employed 2,400 people.

The site was then obtained by the Government in August and named part of its Enterprise Zone, to encourage the creation of more jobs and to cut taxes.

Despite Kent County Council commenting that it would take ten years for the site to recover the gap left by the pharma giant, interest has been shown in the space, including from former Pfizer employees who established a new company at the plant in September.

Pfizer said it would continue its phased exit by 2012 and would review the retained operation within a few years as part of its business planning.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to pay $3 billion to settle US criminal and civil investigations into whether the company illegally marketed drugs and other matters.

The investigations include a Department of Justice review of the UK company’s controversial diabetes drug Avandia, which has been linked to heart risks.

The settlement follows clampdowns since the late 1990s in the US on unfair pharmaceutical industry practices that may have prioritised sales targets over payer and patient interests, such as marketing drugs for unapproved uses.

Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “This is a significant step toward resolving difficult, longstanding matters which do not reflect the company that we are today.

“In recent years, we have fundamentally changed our procedures for compliance, marketing and selling in the US to ensure that we operate with high standards of integrity.”

Mr Witty said that the company has put in place a new bonus system for US sales, which no longer focuses on individual sales goals, but is now based on selling competency, customer evaluations and overall performance of the sale representative’s business unit.

Federal prosecutors began investigating GSK in 2004, into whether the company promoted drugs for unapproved indications, and into cases where the company may have potentially influenced doctors.

The inquiry involved nine of the company’s best-selling products from 1997 to 2004, including lung therapy Advair.

Gbola Amusa, an analyst at UBS AG in London, said: “This news essentially draws a line under a 10-year legal saga.”

Both civil and criminal settlements are expected to be finalised in 2012.

Despite huge investments into CRM systems some pharma companies still struggle to get all of their staff to embrace and fully interact with them. Pf’s Iain Bate explores why, and what the future holds for technology in the industry.

There’s no doubt that technological developments have changed the way we live and work from year to year – maybe even from month to month in the 21st Century. But has the world of healthcare been travelling in the slow lane of the intergalactic highway?

The potential that technology offers to pharma, and the general world of healthcare, is enormous. But is the pharmaceutical industry, and its staff in particular, using it to maximise the returns of billion-dollar investments?

It would seem that technology is the ‘buzz word’ on the lips of a few of healthcare’s major players at present. The DH recently invited people to nominate their favourite health-related mobile phone ‘app’ – be it for keeping fit, to locate a hospital or chemist, or helping to manage an illness. Creative minds were also asked to design their own health app with a panel of DH judges deciding on their favourite from the most popular entries.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says it’s the Government’s intention to give people better access to information using modern technology and the exercise is a “unique opportunity for the NHS and those who develop apps to not only showcase their work, but to bring to life new ideas and realise true innovation in healthcare”.

As part of the DH’s technology revolution, patients may also soon be offered online consultations with their GPs using programmes such as Skype. Clearly the Government is embracing the convenience technology offers to patients, but are other sectors in healthcare as interested? It would seem there is still some way to go.

 

In two minds

Pf ’s 2010/11 annual Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey suggests that not all respondents are completely convinced by the power of technology in the workplace. Although the Survey – which relates to 2010 and the early part of this year – found that nearly 90% of respondents have access to a CRM system, only 43% find time to use it in the field and more than a fifth of people fail to accurately record post-call reports with important clients.

Questions have to be asked as to why, despite multimillion pound investment and training by pharma companies, there remains a percentage of staff that still ignore the power and potential of the technology at their finger tips.

Results from the Survey reveal there’s no difference in uptake by key account managers, primary and secondary care representatives, those in primary care roles only, firstline sales managers and secondline sales managers and the use of CRM technology between differing age groups – although surprisingly 10% of respondents in these positions with less than two years of experience said they did not have a CRM system, compared to just 5% more experienced colleagues.

The launch of the iPad in March 2010 promised to revolutionise the way sales representatives, and those in similar roles, use CRM systems in the field. However, nearly three-quarters (70%) of respondents from the Survey are still presently sent out with laptops containing their customer-relationship systems.

When quizzed on what they’d change about the hardware which houses their system, the majority of respondents said that their CRM was too awkward to carry, with poor running systems an issue and that batteries ran out too quickly. Apple claims its second-generation iPad now enjoys ten hours of use away from a plug socket in the field.

Yet the switch to the latest convenient tablet devices may not necessarily be about high levels of investment, it may be down to maximising value for money as Paul Shawah, Vice President, Multi Channel Strategy, Veeva Systems explains. “I would say the life cycle of devices within the industry is generally about three years, sometimes a little bit longer,” he said. “When a company invests in new technology they typically depreciate that over that period, so they don’t want to replace it in the field for that time to maximise their investment.

“However, with the introduction of game changing technology like the iPad, this has changed. We see a number of our pharmaceutical customers are justifying the business case to move to the iPad even before their tablets are fully depreciated. This speaks to the business benefit that pharma expects to achieve from the iPad and the related applications only available on that device.”

A convenient shield

Despite technology eliminating mundane process in the workplace and offering the potential to assist employees and improve their efficiency at work, it has historically been used as a shield to mask poor performance and abused as a means to waste company time – a recent online survey by AOL found that nearly half of Americans (44.7%) rank surfing the web as their primary activity during the two hours they ‘waste’ each day at work.

But it would seem that a high number of respondents do value the opportunities CRM offers. Almost two-thirds (64%) said they always enter correctly the amount of customer sales they make into their CRM. But 21% admitted they fail to always report face-to-face meetings with clients. More surprisingly, over a fifth of participants said they do not always record the number of products they had sold to clients.

The lack of honest accuracy is surprising considering the amount of time spent using CRM systems each day. A third said they spend between one and two hours a day on their system with a fifth spending three hours or more on their CRM. During their time using the management system, more than half (55%) said that call reporting was the most useful feature.

Although respondents were less impressed with the KAM abilities of their software with only 19% believing it to be the most useful facility. When questioned about what they would change given the chance, 45% said they wanted an improved database, over a quarter (28%) called for their system to be overall more useful, and 18% said they would prefer their CRM to be easier to use.

 

The next level

But what of the future of CRM systems? Will they be easier to use and have improved customer databases? David Round, General Manager, UK, Cegedim Relationship Management, says the regular interaction we now have with technology means we’ve all come to expect the latest developments.

“End users are significantly more ‘technology-savvy’ than their counterparts of even five years ago,” he explained. “If anything, the challenge for companies is to ensure that they provide their end users with the types of technology that they use as consumers. It’s also important to focus on the usability of your software to ensure maximum use. Technology companies – and pharma – must work together to develop a better understanding of the interaction, to ensure it meets users’ needs in the field.”

One main reason that users have become more ‘savvy’ is down to the use and interaction with social media. Whether at home or at work, websites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and most recently Google+ have driven an increased use of various forms of technology – especially on devices such as smartphones or tablet devices which reps are calling for in the field.

Pharma companies, both in the US and UK, have flirted with the idea of fully embracing the power social media harnesses, but at present are restricted by the PMCPA’s Code of Practice and by the FDA – who has again delayed the publication of its guidance.

The FDA says it is “difficult to provide a timeframe... due to the extensive work and review process, or ‘Good Guidance Practices’, which ensures that FDA’s stakeholders are provided well vetted guidances articulating FDA’s current thinking on a topic”.

Although the FDA may be unsure on how to direct healthcare companies, David Round believes the introduction, both professionally and personally, of social media has had an impact on staff and their expectations.

“For the modern professional person, much of their everyday life is conducted online – for example on shopping, utilities, insurance or booking a holiday – and many users then want the same level of capability from the tools they use in their job,” he added.

Dan Goldsmith, General Manager, Veeva Europe, agrees there has been a significant shift in the way we operate and interact due to our experiences online through tagged posts or hash-tagged searches. But although the 800 million users on Facebook – more than half which ‘log-on’ every day – and 175 million people on Twitter have no problem saying hello to friends, pharma finds it more difficult reaching out to people.

“Social media create a new avenue for healthcare dialogue and will only continue to pervade our lives,” said Dan. “Consequently, I believe that pharma faces two challenges. The first is to decide how to participate in the online dialogue with stakeholders and then to create those interactions through the channels we’re all familiar with, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“The second is to figure out how to leverage the model of social dialogue internally to support stronger collaboration and more focused communication among employees. Already, we see some companies taking advantage of the latest social business tools to connect employees with one another and to access and share information in real time.”

Clearly CRM solution providers understand the potential modern technology and social media platforms offer to companies. Whether pharma and its workforce get fully up to speed on the intergalactic highway sooner or later remains to be seen.

Sales increased more than 10% at Sanofi in the third quarter to €8.7 billion, despite the loss of €471 million due to generic competition compared to the same period a year ago.

Total sales grew 10.1% along with an 11% increase in growth platforms after strong performances in its diabetes, vaccines and consumer health divisions.

Christopher A. Viehbacher, Sanofi CEO, says the return to growth in sales and earnings is an “important milestone as the company progressively puts the patent cliff behind it”.

Growth platforms and Genzyme accounted for 68.5% of total sales after the recently acquired business recorded sales up 6.9% to €768 million.

Pharmaceutical net sales were up a tenth to €6.9 billion and helped year-to-date net sales rise 5.5% to €20 billion, despite generic competition to Lovenox, Ambien CR and Taxotere in the US and Plavix (pictured) and Taxotere in the EU plus the impact of US healthcare reform and EU austerity measures.

Its diabetes division was driven by a strong US and Emerging Markets performance which resulted in a 12.4% increase in sales after Lantus recorded growth of 14.6% and 23.4%, in respective markets. Growth in Sanofi’s vaccine division also increased 16.7% after a solid demand for seasonal flu medication in the US.

The Sanofi Group now expects 2011 business net income to be between 2%-5% lower than last year’s total. “We continue to make strong progress in R&D with the submission of five new products and also in the tight control of our costs,” said Mr Viehbacher.

It was reported this week that Sanofi is set to overtake Pfizer as the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company by 2016.

Submissions have been recently filed for Lyxumia (lixisenatide) in the EU, Aubagio (teriflunomide) and Zaltrap (aflibercept) in the US; Visamerin/Mulsevo (semuloparin) in the US and EU; plus Kynamro (mipomersen) in the EU.

The company released its Q3 performance on the day it announced it was cutting jobs in its US R&D and sales divisions.

Sometimes, reporting on the UK pharmaceutical industry feels a bit like Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day. In the late 1990s, when I edited my first title for UK pharma, all the talk was of the move from GP Fundholding and the imminent introduction of Primary Care Groups.

By 2000, New Labour’s NHS Plan promised a revolution in healthcare built around delivering improvements in ‘partnership, performance, patient care and prevention’. The politicians were about to ‘modernise the health service’.

Fast forward almost 12 years and we’re still being read the same script; new politicians, the same old lines. Four Ps – partnership, prevention, productivity and patient care – continue to dominate airtime, only this time, of course, it will be different.

Different? Some hope. This is Groundhog Day. So how is the UK pharmaceutical industry responding to change? Its customer-base, meticulously redrawn through 10 years of implementing the NHS plan, is yet again being reshaped. PCTs are on the way out. CCGs and Clinical Senates are on the way in. Keeping track of decision-makers and influencers is critical. Getting in front of them in the right volume, at the right time and with the right message is life and death.

The industry is currently pinning its hopes on Key Account Management (KAM), supported by a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) philosophy that promises to enable the field force to have a more detailed understanding of individual customer needs across a diverse and complex landscape.

The tools to support the CRM approach are impressive, established and evolving in time with the modern technological advancement. They also provide huge value to medical sales professionals, and the ability to enhance customer interactions.

But, as ever, this is Groundhog Day. Twelve months ago, Pf’s annual survey into field force attitudes revealed an apathy amongst some sales professionals towards the use of CRM. A year later and it appears that, despite its many advantages, the value message for CRM is still not being heard by all of those who can undoubtedly benefit from it.

This year, 90% of Pf’s survey respondents have access to a CRM system – but only 43% of these find time to use it in the field, and more than a fifth admit that they fail to record post-call reports accurately.

In a fast-moving, dynamic marketplace, generating, sharing and maximising real customer insight is one of the best ways for sales professionals to achieve competitive advantage. CRM tools provide the perfect mechanism for this. Only the foolish would pass up the opportunity.

I feel like I am repeating myself. But then again, this is healthcare Groundhog Day. Next month: more NHS reform.

Chris Ross
Editor