In This Issue:
Building a Pharma Sales Force
Page 2
Healthcare Strategy Consulting
Page 4
RBS @: Ortho-Biotech
Page 3
RBS @: Organon
Page 4
Lerner Center Seminar:
Pharmaceutical Industry Issues
Page 5
Speaker Series:
Product Commercialization
Page 6
RBS @: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Page 7
RBS Pharma Mgmt.
Alumni Events:
Alumni Mixer
•Late January/Early February
•Please look for and complete the
e-mail survey that will help deter-
mine date and location
Speaker Series Event
•Topic: Med. Ed and Mrkt. Dev.
•Thursday, 1/29 @ MEC Newark
Speaker Series Event
•Spkr: Nicholas Valeriani, VP, Hu-
man Resources; Worldwide
Chairman, Diagnostics, J&J
•Friday, 2/25 @ J&J
•Event open to current RBS stu-
dents and J&J employees only
To be put on the mailing list for
events, contact Allison Lapchak-
Rutkowski at:
allisolr@eden.rutgers.edu
1 1
Combination Devices: A Road Map
Thom Doyle and Matt Hall are the founding Revenue Potential
partners of the Kerdan Group, a leading life
• Combination devices can dramatically
sciences strategy consulting firm helping
clients grow in pharmaceuticals, biotech, expand market share as well as cre-
and medical devices. For more information ate entirely new markets.
on the authors and their firm, visit • For example, the stent market in 2001
www.kerdan.com. was comprised of only bare metal
stents and was valued at $2.1 billion.
Expectations continue to grow for the With the introduction of drug-eluting
medical effectiveness and business stents, the market has grown to $5.3
success of combination products that billion with combination stents com-
marry medical devices with drugs or prising 80% of the market value.
biologic agents. These new partner-
ships have the potential to reinvigo-
rate existing drugs and devices,
while making current treatments ob-
solete. Combination devices are an
exciting new frontier in the health-
care industry with huge revenue po-
tential – but one that requires a new
way of looking at things. Combina-
tion devices require developers to
have a broad vision when assessing
market needs, developing strategic
partnerships, and educating the con-
stituents involved.
Continued on page 6
CRM Strategy:
Don’t Manage Your Customers, Lead Them
Eliot Tyler is SVP, Director of Relationship with true customer service cost drivers
Marketing for CDMiConnect. Tyler works and opportunities to drive cross-sell
with clients such as Pfizer, Amgen, and Bos- through customer service interactions.
ton Scientific in developing and implement- In pharmaceuticals, we have very few
ing both customer acquisition and patient
retention relationship
opportunities to interact with customers
on a “service”
marketing programs. He
can be reached at: basis. Patients
212-798-4450 or at rarely call a help
etyler@cdmiconnect.com line and if they
do, the priority is
Customer Relationship dealing with
Management in the health and safety
pharmaceutical mar- issues, not cross-
keting world is a mis- selling.
nomer. Pharmaceuti-
cal marketers should not look to simply “Management” of customers implies the
“manage” customer relationships. maintaining of the status-quo while find-
That’s for the world of financial services ing marginal cost savings or revenue
and telecommunications -- categories
Continued on page 9
 RxSuccess Gets Building a Pharmaceutical Sales Force:
New Editorial A Strategic Approach
Board Brad Patten is Vice President of Marketing For purposes of this article, we will dis-
and Corporate Development at Ventiv Health cuss the larger primary care segment of
RxSuccess founder in Somerset, New Jersey. Patten has spent
and editor Rohit Sood, practicing physicians.
more then 25 years working in the pharma-
has handed over edito- ceutical industry in the areas of sales man-
rial control to a newly agement, marketing, and managed care for
In building a sales force for any specialty
created editorial board. several pharmaceutical manufacturers. the key is understanding which seg-
(Please see Rohit’s Letter from Patten has also had experience working with ments or sub-segments of the medical
the Editor on page 10.) advertising agencies, pharmaceutical mar- community are most valuable for your
keting service companies and worked closely brand business and understanding
with the NIH and NCI on projects in both where they are located, how responsive
The new editorial board
breast and prostate cancer. He teaches a they are to promotion and the frequency
is headed by new Man- graduate course on Pharmaceutical Sales
aging Editor Chris Duf- of message delivery required to change
Management at the Rutgers Business prescribing behavior. Market research
fus, who will coordinate School.
the efforts of the editors is key to understanding the segments.
and oversee layout of the publica- In the pharmaceuti-
tion. In building a primary
cal industry the
care sales force it must
most effective and
Dan Arias be determined how
most expensive pro-
and Bindu many primary care phy-
motional element of
Shah will sicians hold real value
a successful brand
assume the for the drug needing to
strategy is an ex-
duties of Co- be promoted. It is not
perienced, well-
editors—Industry News and will pragmatic or cost effec-
trained sales force.
be responsible for recruiting the tive to build a sales
The process of siz-
industry professionals who will force to promote to
ing, staffing, training
provide the valuable content of 375,000 PCPs. Market
and deploying a
this newsletter. research can identify
sales team requires
which segments of the
thoughtfulness, significant market re-
Chris Ernst will become PCP group have a prescribing history for
search as well as competitive and mar-
Editor—Rutgers Af- similar or competing medications. These
ket analysis. When built thoroughly and
fairs and work with a data identify the prescribing value in
thoughtfully, a sales force will provide
team of staff reporters terms of dollars for each physician.
the level of market share and ROI that
to coordinate coverage justifies its expense.
of the many industry events being The first sales force sizing decision is
undertaken by various facets of then made by determining how many
Currently there are approximately
the RBS Pharmaceutical Manage- primary care physicians must be called
80,000–90,000 pharmaceutical sales
ment Program. on to gain a specified share of market,
representatives calling on the medical
year on year. In general, most manufac-
community in the United States. There
Taku Kudo, as Edi- turers segment 110,000 to 120,000
are approximately one million practicing
tor—Layout, will be PCPs as the most valuable to the suc-
physicians in the US, with primary care
responsible for the de- cess of a primary care product. Within
physicians (PCPs) comprising the larg-
sign and layout of the this segment, delivering sales calls with
est segment (375,000). There are also
publication. the proper frequency to change pre-
many specialty physicians ranging from
scribing behavior generally requires 450
oncologists to podiatrists and emer-
Paula John- Sales Representatives, 45 District Man-
gency practices to nurse practitioners
son and Alli- agers and six Regional Business Direc-
and physicians assistants. Various phy-
son Lapchak- tors. The above example has been
sician specialties represent different lev-
Rutkowski will simplified and additional market re-
els of value to pharmaceutical manufac-
work together to increase the cir- search, such as brand promotional re-
turers due to their ability or willingness
culation of the publication as Co- sponsiveness, territory alignment, reach
to prescribe certain types of therapies.
Directors—Circulation. Continued on page 3

2 2
Building a Pharmaceutical Sales Force: RBS @:
A Strategic Approach
Continued from page 2 assist this process. However, more im-
portant is determining in which quintile
and frequency estimates, specific call you want to compete for your talent. Do By Michelle Parmentola
plans and more, are required to arrive at you want to pay the highest compensa-
the exact number of representatives tion to acquire talent for a particular job Students from the RBS Pharma-
needed. or less than that? Do you want to com- ceutical Management program
pete for managers at the highest com- made a visit to Ortho Biotech in
As the sales force size is being deter- pensation levels and representatives in September.
mined, Sales Management and Human the middle? These questions need an-
Resources should work together to cre- swers before the actual candidate identi- Jeff Stewart, Vice President of
ate the hiring profiles for all positions fication begins. Compliance, presented on the cur-
within the sales team. Relying on a team rent compliance trends in the phar-
of “Job Experts “ comprised of internal Another important question to answer, maceutical industry.
and external sales, marketing and hu- although this is usually reserved for spe-
man resources personnel often works cialty sales forces, is do you want to hire Stewart discussed guidelines intro-
best to create the hiring profile for each and pay for managers or representatives duced by the US government, such
position. This team of with established busi- as anti-kickback laws, and dis-
experts works together ness relationships cussed J&J’s commitment to
to determine which among key opinion lead- maintaining compliance with these
skills (i.e. communica- ers (KOL) and influen- laws and standards.
tion, initiative, resource- cers? In some therapeu-
fulness, perseverance, tic areas, where many “It was really valuable to discuss
planning and organiz- physicians can be influ- how a successful organization
ing, networking etc.) are enced by a small num- such as Ortho Biotech deals with
most important for the ber of KOL’s or influen- the regulatory complexities of the
success of managers tial prescribers, the an- healthcare industry,” said Dan
and representatives. swer may be “yes”. After Arias, MBA Candidate ‘06.
all these questions are
Based on the skills set answered, the territory The second presentation was by
established by the job alignments are com- Catherine Piech, Executive Direc-
experts, interviewing guides to assist in pleted, the audience segments are iden- tor of Outcomes Research. Piech
identifying the required skills, education, tified, profiles are established and com- discussed clinical trials and criti-
and experience can now be completed pensation strategy is completed, it is cism surrounding trials such as
to add consistency in the recruiting ef- then time to actually begin interviewing selective patient populations and
fort. In terms of education, most phar- for talent. trial expense. Ms. Piech also dis-
maceutical companies require a mini- cussed the role of third parties in
mum of a four-year undergraduate de- It is always wise to source the manage- comparative studies.
gree to qualify as a sales representative. ment team first, expose them to com-
In terms of experience, many companies pany culture and expectations before Recent RBS Pharmaceutical Man-
look to blend the experience levels training them in interviewing technique agement Program graduate Terry
within their respective district sales and turning them loose to recruit. Creat- Davidson, currently an Associate
teams. This practice can impact overall ing a job description, compensation Marketing Manager in Ortho-
compensation positively and at the same package and list of job expectations al- Biotech’s Strategic Customer
time create a stronger, diversified team lows hiring managers to consistently out- Group also attended the event and
with different points of view. line the position opportunity to each can- provided a valuable perspective to
didate during the interview process. the current students.
Compensation plans for the sales force, Managers should be allowed to make
determining salary versus incentive/ the hiring decision for their own teams The Rutgers MBA Pharmaceutical
bonus compensation, need to be estab- since they will be accountable for Management Program would like
lished next. Compensation surveys are achieving their forecasted results. to thank Ortho-Biotech for hosting
available through different vendors to this event.
Continued on page 10

3 3
 RBS @:
By Dan Arias
Organon hosted a series of on-
site lectures for students from the
RBS Pharmaceutical Manage-
ment program in November .
Bill Healey, EVP of the Healthcare
Institute of New Jersey (HINJ),
spoke first about the importance
of the pharmaceutical industry to
the state and the current chal-
lenges facing the industry.
Warren Czeriak, head of World-
wide Business Development
(WBD) and an RBS alumnus,
then discussed business develop-
ment’s role at Organon, specifi-
cally the in-licensing process.
Mark Evangelist, Executive Direc-
tor of the WBD presented on
product lifecycle management,
focusing on the benefits of author-
ized generic drugs.
Deepa Talpade, RBS alumnus
and Senior Manager, WBD,
closed out the event by speaking
on her experience as a recent
graduate of the Pharmaceutical
Management Program.
The RBS Pharmaceutical Man-
agement Program would like to
thank Organon for hosting the
event.
4 4
Healthcare Strategy Consulting
Cameron Dunnan is a case team leader strategy as a critical line management
with Monitor Group LP and has worked as a function and his “Industry Analysis” and
strategy consultant to pharmaceutical, medi-
“Value Chain” tools provided strong
cal device and biotechnology clients for 6guidance to an analytical approach to
years. Dunnan holds a Bachelors of Science
degree in biochemistry from Brown Univer-
strategic planning. Also during this pe-
sity and an MBA from Rutgers Business riod, Kenichi Ohmae highlighted the
importance of customer to strategy.
School.
Then, in the 1990s, Henry Mintzberg,
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahahad intro-
In the realm of the management con-
sulting profession, there is sometimes a duced the concept that strategy must be
mystique associated with “strategy con- action-oriented, and placed emphasis
sulting.” For instance, when explaining on core competencies as a key strategic
to a new acquaintance or relative that I dimension of a corporation.
work in healthcare strategy consulting, I
am often greeted with a puzzled look, But what do we mean by strategy? In
but an acknowledgement that it does summary, Michael Porter has defined
sounds rather impor- strategy as the creation
tant. To shed some of a unique and valu-
more light on this able position, by delib-
topic, it is probably erately choosing a dif-
helpful to have a brief ferentiating set of activi-
historical backdrop, to ties. Henry Mintzberg
understand some ba- has defined strategy
sic definitions of strat- according to the “five
egy, and then consider Ps:” plan, ploy, pattern,
some examples of position or perspective,
what healthcare strat- and suggests that cor-
egy consulting may porate strategy is deter-
entail. mined by a company’s
pattern of decisions or
Business strategy choices that reveals its
evolved most signifi- objectives, purposes
cantly in the second and goals. Turning to
half of the 20th century. Webster’s, strategy is
While key thoughts leaders, including defined as skill in managing and plan-
Alfred Chandler, Ken Andrews and Igor ning, especially using stratagems, or
Ansoff and Bruce Henderson laid the artful means to some end. Also, some-
groundwork of strategic planning in the thing strategic is characterized by a
1960s, it was during the 1970s that one sound strategy, favorable or advanta-
saw the rise of independent strategy geous. In practice, “strategy” normally
consulting practices providing corporate implies activities or objectives that are
businesses with independent strategic more enduring, capable of being sus-
planning guidance. Subsequently, in the tained over the course of 3 to 7 years,
early 1980s, Michael Porter, another as compared to tactics, that are more
important thought leader in business near term actions, over the next 1 to 2
strategy, in his landmark publications, years, and supportive of the larger strat-
Competitive Strategy (1980) and Com- egy. Also, “strategic” typically makes
petitive Advantage (1985), defined the reference to those organizational divi-
principles of competitive business strat- sions or key products that drive
egy, and helped establish strategy as a [revenues of] the overall business.
legitimate academic and business disci-
pline. Porter is credited with shaping Continued on page 5
Healthcare Strategy Consulting
Continued from page 4
So history and definitions aside, strat-
egy formulation and strategic planning
have become standard practices for
most competitive global businesses.
Now because business strategy formu-
lation and implementation for an overall
business may be one of the most key
activities in charting the course and suc-
cess of a business, the activity is often
orchestrated by a company’s most sen-
ior executive management. Further-
more, strategy derivation is typically a
difficult and complex process that can
benefit from expert support.
As such, initiatives to support and drive
the development and execution of busi-
ness strategy have become the main-
stay of major management consulting
firms, particularly
in the fiercely com-
petitive healthcare
products industry,
that includes phar-
maceutical, medi-
cal device and bio-
technology compa-
nies; non-product
entities would in-
clude managed
care and other
healthcare providers.
Some consider corporate business
strategy development as perhaps the
most exciting and meaningful initiative
to drive and support. However, strategic
planning, and associated management
consulting engagements, also occur at
other “levels” within an organization,
including that for strategic business
units or corporate divisions, functional
groups (such as R&D or Marketing &
Sales), and key brands. In fact, all of
these consulting initiatives, and associ-
ated activities, can be as demanding,
time consuming, and rewarding as an
overall business strategy, particularly
since SBU, functional and brand strat-
egy are often aligned and intertwined
with the overall business strategy.
5 5
My observation has been that strategy
formulation and strategic planning are
always in progress at each “level” in
pharmaceutical, biotech and medical
device clients, and that the process can
span from systematic and structured to
ad hoc and informal. When the process
is less organized or effective, manage-
ment consultants are called upon to
bring discipline, rigor and speed to the
activities, and to apply proven method-
ologies and techniques to achieve de-
sired outputs, and ultimately create
value. Strategy consultants also have
the advantage of acting as an objective
outside party that can be better posi-
tioned to establish process, challenge
content, and generate consensus
among what are typically diverse and
dynamic cross-functional project teams.
Another advantage
to the consultant is
that we are ex-
pected to have, or
develop, a broad
and deep under-
standing of the
organization,
across all func-
tions and activities,
and the ability to
develop and foster
strong interpersonal relationships. While
this may also help with strategy imple-
mentation, many pure business strategy
consultants, outside of IT, tend to be
less focused on execution.
So perhaps healthcare “strategy con-
sulting” is less mysterious than one
would first think? It essentially refers to
providing professional, specialized con-
sulting services, related to strategy for-
mulation and strategic planning, to
manufacturers and marketers of health-
care products and services. Often these
services are commissioned by a health-
care company’s most senior manage-
ment representatives, giving us the op-
portunity to interact at this level, and
meaningfully contribute to shaping the
future success of the business.
Lerner Center
Seminar:
Current Issues in the
Pharmaceutical Industry
By Chris Ernst
On November 30th, Richard Man-
ning, PhD, Senior Directory, Eco-
nomic and Policy Research at
Pfizer, Inc., gave a presentation
entitled “Current Issues in the
Pharmaceutical Industry” before a
full crowd in Bove Auditorium, in
Engelhard Hall on the Newark
campus of Rutgers University.
Highlights of the presentation in-
cluded an analysis of the reality vs.
perception of pharmaceutical
costs; the far-reaching benefits of
pharmaceuticals; an analysis of the
R&D costs associated with launch-
ing new drugs; and a discussion on
the debate surrounding the re-
importation of pharmaceuticals.
Manning engaged in lively discus-
sion with the audience, which in-
cluded industry leaders (including
Irwin Lerner, former Chairman of
the Board of Hoffmann-LaRoche,
and founder of the Lerner Center
for Pharmaceutical Management
studies), RBS alumni, and current
students.
Look for excerpts from the presen-
tation in the next issue of RxSuc-
cess.
If you would like to be notified of
future Lerner Center events please
contact Allison Lapchak-Rutkowski
at: allisolr@eden.rutgers.edu
 Speaker Series:
New Product
Commercialization
By Chris Duffus
In November, the RBS Pharma-
ceutical Management Club kicked
off its Industry Speaker Series with
a presentation entitled “Bringing
New Products to the Market - The
Brand Management and Market
Research Perspective.”
Kartik Shukla (left), MBA Can-
didate ‘05 and former Novartis
intern, meets with our speakers.
The three speakers, all from No-
vartis, were Shimon Korish, Man-
ager, New Products Analysis; Dar-
ciena Christel (RBS ’92) Executive
Director, Sales and Demand
Analysis; and Vic Delimata, Direc-
tor, CNS New Product Develop-
ment.
Christel presented a overview of
Novartis, which was followed by an
extensive discussion on the early
stages of new product commer-
cialization by Delimata. The pres-
entation ended with Korish’s talk
about the market research that
supports the commercialization
efforts.
The event prompted lively discus-
sion from the audience, which con-
sisted of current MBA and Execu-
tive MBA students, alumni, and
faculty.
See page 1 for a list of upcoming
Speaker Series Events.
6 6
Combination Devices: A Road Map
Continued from page 1
• Novel therapies often fail to make it to market because of high development
costs or unforeseen issues in trials. However, integrated devices can bypass
some of these issues by building on the successful track records of their compo-
nents – already approved drugs or devices.
Who Stands to Profit
Medical Device Makers
• Device makers are seeing price and margin erosion for many staple products
(stents, catheters, etc.). Integrated devices offer a means of upgrading existing
products without incurring massive new capital commitments. They also provide
a way to grow profits with higher price points.
Pharmaceutical Companies
• For an industry that is struggling with revenue erosion from patent expiry, inte-
grated devices offer a much-needed boost to medical device and drug compa-
nies by providing new technical means for more targeted drug delivery, thus revi-
talizing their existing products.
Obstacles & Guidelines for Overcoming Them
Concept Identification
• The conceptualization process for combination devices is similar to traditional
products – it begins by identifying a need.
• For example, when Johnson and Johnson developed the Cypher stent, they
were targeting a common shortcoming of bare metal stents – restinosis or scar
tissue that grows over the stent and leads to reblockage of the artery.
• How can a product from a partner company enhance your product to fill an un-
met need?
Guidelines for Concept Identification
1. Innovate with market needs in mind: Gather customer/market data via patient/
doctor surveys, focus groups, and sales force interviews.
2. Broaden your perspective: Leverage discussion sessions within R&D and mar-
keting to identify unmet needs.
3.Assess market potential: Will your product expand the current market or does the
product platform open opportunities for new markets?
Continued on page 7
Combination Devices: A Road Map RBS @:
Continued from page 6

Partner to complement your capabilities: Develop preliminary criteria for selecting a By Allison Lapchak-Rutkowski and
partner with expertise based on cultural fit and long-term relationship potential. Be- Alex Schlesinger
gin compiling list of potential partners.
In December, Bristol-Myers
Different Approaches to Development Squibb Company hosted Rutgers
MBA students for a series of lec-
Medical Device Companies Drug Companies tures.

Mechanical Solutions Orientation Pharmacological Solutions Steven Sitek, Director, Leadership

Technology development Inclination Reseach & and Development, provided the
experimentation students with an overview of
Engineering Education Biology,Chemistry, BMS's vision of marketing excel-
Biochemistry lence, consisting of the integration
2-3years R&DProcessTime 6-10years of R&D, marketing and sales.
Rapid development/ Product Lifecycle Lengthy development/
limited duration (development/ substantial duration
Next, Wayne Sichel, JD, RPh, pre-
market duration) sented an overview of Medicare
Reform with particular emphasis
Enhancing devices Inclination toward Enhancing drug
Combination Products effectiveness
on the Medicare Modernization Act
of 2003, the New Medicare Drug
Benefit (Part D) and some key
implementation issues.
• Structural and Organizational Differences
Medical device companies are oriented towards technology development on a
short timeline, and they are used to adapting to change. They may achieve some
market share by being first, but the majority of their profit is derived from future
device iterations.
• Drug companies are research-driven and operate on long development time-
lines. They derive profits from patent protection coupled with early-mover advan-
tage.
Regulatory Challenges
• In addition to the standard regulatory hurdles, product developers must pursue
approval for a product that is neither wholly device nor drug/biologic agent, yet
for the regulatory process they must choose the most fitting characterization.
Lisa McCabe, Senior Product
Manager, discussed the payor
strategy associated with Pravachol
and the tactics utilized for various
managed healthcare plans to opti-
mize formulary positioning.

According to Chris Duffus, MBA

candidate ‘06 , "The discussion on
Pravachol’s approach to its man-
aged care clients provided great
insights into BMS’s marketing
practices.”

The Rutgers MBA Pharmaceutical

Management Program would like
to thank BMS for hosting this
Continued on page 8 event.

7 7
 RBS
Pharmaceutical
Management Club
Elects New Officers
The RBS Pharmaceutical Man-
agement Club held officer elec-
tions on Dec. 9. to replace out-
going President Jenny Upte-
grove, Treasurer Aisha Baro,
and Secretary Natalie Wightman.
Current club activities include:
• RxSuccess quarterly news-
letter
• Semi-annual alumni mixer
events
• Industry speaker series (see
page 6 for a report on the
most recent event)
• Peer education programs.
To better reflect these activities,
revisions to the club’s constitu-
tion, that alter the officer posi-
tions, were approved. The new
officers are:
President
Chris Duffus
VP, Alumni Rela-
tions
Allison Lapchak-
Rutkowski
VP, Education
Bindu Shaw
Combination Devices: A Road Map
Continued from page 7
• The US has recently introduced the
Office of Combination Products to help
address some of these special issues,
and oversee their regulations.
• However, Europe has yet to open a
similar office. The new frontier of com-
bination products holds the possibility
of both challenge and opportunity in
the EU as well.
Intellectual Property
• Drug companies enjoy long patent pro-
tection as reward for lengthy develop-
ment cycles. Device companies, by
contrast, have rapid product cycles
and more easily re-engineered prod-
ucts.
• Most often a device timeline is used
when creating a combination product.
Developers must consider this when
selecting regulatory pathways, initiat-
ing clinical trials, and making pre- and
post-launch decisions.
Guidelines for Development
1. Define your partnership: Determine
optimal structure (in/out licensing, ac-
quisition, strategic alliance, or joint
venture) and classify relationship in
terms of equity, revenue sharing, mar-
keting, and division of responsibility.
2. Jointly plan regulatory and intellectual
property strategies: Assess product as
predominantly device or pharmaceuti-
cal. Prepare FDA applications. Identify
what patents to secure.
Marketing and Reimbursement
problems: 1) reaching the right deci-
sion-makers, and 2) knowing and us-
ing the right sales pitch.
• Corporate sponsors will need to devote
adequate resources to the cross-
training of marketing and sales repre-
sentatives who will need a wider
knowledge base to sell the new plat-
form.
• The key to securing reimbursement,
particularly given the price premiums
that combination products hope to de-
rive, will be in obtaining compelling
qualitative and quantitative data to
support a cost-effectiveness argument,
including cost-saving benefits like re-
duced complications, errors, inpatient
length of stay, procedure time, and
rehabilitation costs.
Guidelines for Marketing & Reim-
bursement
1. Make sure the market is ready: Edu-
cate all constituents. Anticipate and
strategize ways to overcome financial
objections. Seek feedback from clinical
trial centers about difficulties or resis-
tance to use.
2. Secure reimbursement: Prepare cost-
effectiveness studies. Develop savvy
promotional materials. Initiate educa-
tion and awareness programs targeted
to relevant decision-makers.
3. Assess competitors: Survey for future
product innovations. Conduct scenario
planning analysis setting forth proac-
tive and reactive actions for competitor
responses.
4. Assemble and train your sales force:
Determine appropriate sales force
structure and division of responsibility
with partnering firm. Create educa-
tional initiatives and training programs.

Treasurer
Chris Ernst
• Combination devices present new
challenges in the sales and marketing
arena. Until there is an established
protocol for pitching combination de-
vices, sales reps struggle with two key
Conclusion
Combination products are revolutionizing
the pharmaceutical and device markets.
Use the guidelines outlined here to
change the way you look at the possibili-
ties. Understand and prepare for the
challenges. Rely on your partner’s
strengths. And navigate a path to combi-
nation product success.

8 8
CRM Strategy: Don’t Manage Your Customers, Lead Them
Continued from page 1
gains. In pharmaceuticals, “management” is not good
enough. We need to lead customer relationships to
those that directly drive significant increases in reve-
nues. In this sense, we are now talking about Customer
Relationship Leadership.
Looking at customer relationships from a leadership
point-of-view requires us marketers to put down the Mar-
keting textbook for a moment and to pick up our trusty
Organizational Behavior text book. Of the many aspects
of leadership, there are 3 key areas that should be ap-
plied to any CRM strategy:
• Clearly identify who you are leading (the
constituents) and what you want them to
do
• Identify and mitigate the “barriers” that
would prevent your constituents from doing
what you want them to do
• Identify and utilize appropriate motivators
that will drive your constituents to action
Identifying who you are leading and what
you want them to do
Now let’s reopen our Marketing textbooks and
talk about customer segmentation. We can
slice and dice our customers a hundred differ-
ent ways – demographic, psychographic, etc.
But, if we are focusing on driving behaviors, a
good starting point is to segment customers
based on behaviors that impact revenue.
As an example, let’s take the case of a de-
rmatological cream that treats early stage skin
cancer. Behaviors that we want patients to
do are: Recognize the need for treatment,
visit their doctor, ask for our brand, fill the
script, use the product, refill the script. Our
segmentation model then follows suit:
Desired Behavior Segment
Recognize symptoms Non-aware
Visit doctor Aware
Ask for our product Diagnosed
Fill the script Prescribed
Refill script, advocate On therapy
Identify and mitigate the “barriers”
As a marketing leader, a key aspect of your job is to
work with each of your team members to understand
what may prevent them from doing their job and work
9 9
with them to proactively remove the obstacles. It’s no
different for leading patients.
Traditional brand marketers often tackle the issues of
“barriers” through positioning. They may identify a key
barrier of “denial of aging” as a reason why patients will
not visit their doctor to get diagnosed. The positioning
may come out to reinforce the message of “even young
people get skin cancer, too”. Because we have seg-
mented our customers based on behaviors, we know
that this positioning may only be appropriate to our first 2
segments. Once a patient has started on product, their
reasons for not-refilling may be drastically different. The
barriers may be emotional (“treating my skin
cancer makes me feel old”) or they may be
functional (“I hate the smell of the cream”).
There are two levels of barrier identification
and mitigation. The first level requires pri-
mary research with patients in each segment
who have not progressed to the next seg-
ment. We need to ask the questions, and
probe deeply, to understand both the real and
rationalized barriers. So when our lapsed
user says they quit “because of the smell of
the cream,” we need to probe to understand if
that is really true, or is it just a rationalization
because they are not willing to admit that it
makes them feel old. Once we have identi-
fied the true barriers for each segment, we
can then put strategies in place to mitigate
each of the barriers.
The deeper level of barrier identification gets
us into the real CRM world. This is where we
identify barriers on an individual basis.
Rather than drawing conclusions at segment
level, instead we get information on that spe-
cific person. This level of barrier identification
is accomplished primarily through surveying
of individual patients (getting patients to answer survey
questions should be part of your program). We can ei-
ther ask questions overtly – “What is your least favorite
aspect of treating your skin cancer?” or be more veiled –
“In general, do you feel skin cancer is a disease of peo-
ple who are outdoors a lot or of people who are older?”
Based on their response, our follow-up communications
will directly address the individual patient’s barriers.
Advanced Barrier Strategy: What barriers can you put in
place preventing constituents from taking behaviors that
you don’t want them to do?
Continued on page 10
CRM Strategy
Continued from page 9
Identify and utilize appro-
priate motivators
Going back to leadership –
what motivates one team
member (e.g. money) may
not be the motivator of an-
other (e.g. recognition). Our
motivational strategy should
likewise be tailored to the
segment, or to the individual
The identification of motiva-
tors by segment can be
handled in a similar manner
to our approach for barrier
analysis and mitigation.
Primary research with pa-
tients in each of the seg-
ments will allow us to iden-
tify what motivates them at
that point in time. Again,
the motivators may be very
rational (e.g. to alleviate
symptoms) or emotional
(e.g. to feel young again).
Like barriers, the motivation
to start on a product may be
much different than the mo-
tivation to stay on product.
No one message will suit
both segments. Since moti-
vators are specific to each
individual, it would greatly
improve your leadership
effectiveness if you can find
ways to identify and imple-
ment motivators on a one-
to-one basis.
To make your marketing
programs more impactful,
treat your customers like
your team members. To get
them to do what you want
them to do you, lead them --
identify exactly what you
want them to do, clear the
way, and push them in the
right direction. Remember,
at all times, each constituent
will face different barriers
and require different motiva-
tion. As a marketer, it is our
role to identify each cus-
tomer’s needs and find
ways to address them
through our marketing pro-
grams.
Building a Sales Force
Continued from page 3
During the recruiting or in-
terviewing phase of building
a sales force it is prudent to
have at least two members
of the management team
interview each candidate.
This practice provides for a
second opinion and creates
challenging debate, which
should lead to effective hir-
ing. Many companies util-
ize a phone interview to
qualify a candidate before a
resume is handed off to a
manager and then require
three interviews before hir-
ing. As the process is com-
pleted and the launch or
deployment date is estab-
lished, HR needs to work
diligently to complete all the
background investigations
necessary to qualify candi-
dates in time for the target
hire date.
The final issue when build-
ing a sales force is to insure
the field management team
is not too pressured to com-
plete the staffing of their
respective teams. This can
be accomplished by provid-
ing enough lead-time for the
managers to complete re-
cruitment. Too much pres-
sure may force expedient
decisions and patience is
needed to insure the right
person is hired. Hiring the
wrong person costs at least
twice the salary and fringe
costs of one hire ($200,000)
plus manager time out of
the field for back fill recruit-
ing and an overall negative
impact on productivity.
The building of a sales force
is dominated by territory
alignment, marketing strat-
egy, profile development
and compensation deci-
sions. The actual sourcing,
interviewing and hiring is
only a small part of what
goes into building a sales
force.

Letter from the Editor

When I launched this newsletter last year, my goal
was to create a channel to showcase the capabili-
ties of the Rutgers Business School student and
alumni and share ideas on the pharmaceutical in-
dustry. We have more than surpassed that goal.
ucts, CRM strategy, building a pharmaceutical sales
force and the practice of healthcare strategy con-
sulting. Our editorial team has also written about
some of the industry seminars that the Rutgers
Business School students participated in.

In our first year, we have achieved quite a few mile-
stones. We have engaged industry professionals,
alumni and current students in writing articles for
this newsletter. With the support of Dean Tuckman,
Dr. Hassan and the Pharmaceutical Management
Club, our readership has flourished.
Our current publication is the result of a team effort
of some very motivated individuals who have trans-
formed this simple newsletter into a professional
publication. We call this issue the ‘Strategy’ edition.
It includes articles on drug/device combination prod-
It has been a privilege to serve as the Editor of
RxSuccess. Led by the new Managing Editor, Chris
Duffus, the new editorial team brings in a new vision
for RxSuccess - some of which you are experienc-
ing as your read this issue. As I transition this effort
to the new team, I savor the experiences of launch-
ing RxSuccess and look forward to Chris and his
team taking this newsletter to the next level.
Best wishes,
Rohit Sood
Founder and Editor

10