Patient Empowerment: Consequences for Pharmaceutical Marketing and for the Patient–Physician Relationship - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 418

Chapter 14
Patient Empowerment: Consequences
for Pharmaceutical Marketing and for
the Patient-Physician Relationship
Nuno Camacho
Abstract Big Pharma's blockbuster model—which entails developing new drugs
for diseases affecting a very large number of patients, promoting it to physicians as
the new best-in-class treatment, and profiting from the ensuing volume of sales—is
under threat. In the last 2 decades, the largest pharmaceutical firms have lost billions
of dollars in shareholder value, due to a combination of factors such as declining
R&D productivity, stricter regulatory requirements, more intense generic competi-
tion, and an increasingly ineffective marketing model. I review societal, demo-
graphic, regulatory, and technological trends and discuss how such trends are
contributing to the rise of a new class of empowered patients. I discuss the implica-
tions of patient empowerment for the patient-physician relationship and for therapy
launch and therapy promotion. Building on real-world evidence, I discuss the
benefits and challenges of direct-to-patient marketing strategies such as nurturing
partnerships with key patient opinion leaders and direct-to-patient communication
via social media. Through a content analysis of the 2005-2010 annual reports of the
largest 20 pharmaceutical firms, I show that, despite strict regulatory requirements,
several firms have started to embrace patient empowerment as a key component of
their marketing models. However, much remains to be done. I propose that now is
the right time for pharmaceutical marketers (and scholars) to implement marketing
strategies that help empowering patients. In addition, I also discuss the importance
of avoiding that patient empowerment results in healthcare consumerism, which
could have destructive consequences for patient-physician (and firm-physician)
relationships.
N. Camacho ( * )
Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgmeester Oudlaan 50,
Room H15-09, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: [e-mail]