FirstWord: Market Research Reports

In low and middle-income countries, around 17.6 million people each year die of treatable infectious diseases, reproductive health issues, and childhood illnesses. Millions more experience poor qualit...

With an estimated 80% of all clinical trials failing to achieve enrolment goals, sponsors are constantly seeking new and better techniques to attract the right patients. In 2011, nearly one i...

Key opinion leaders (KOLs) play a vital role in the effective development and marketing of drugs and medical devices. However, restrictions are increasingly being imposed on the ways in which...

Coupons for co-pays are fast becoming a standard part of the brand marketer’s toolkit, due to proven positive ROI. It’s projected that by 2017, coupons will be associated with 30% of all U.S. prescrip...

Patient non-adherence is estimated to represent $290 billion per year in avoidable medical expenses in the United States alone. Consumers’ motivations for non-compliance are complex; up to 80% of peop...

The role of the Key Opinion Leader (KOL) has changed over the past 30 years. And it's about to change again.Once viewed with suspicion by their non-consulting peers, clinicians are now considered less...

“If you’re not talking segmentation, then you’re not talking marketing.”While German-born, American economist Theodore Levitt made the remark in 1960, his words carry weight even today—if not moreso.W...

For the pharmaceutical industry, emerging markets are dynamic, full of potential and offer solid growth at a time when established markets are contracting. But they also pose a significant problem: ex...

Ever since it was introduced three decades ago, academic detailing—which now increasingly uses pharma’s sales techniques to educate physicians—has posed a difficult issue for the industry. Governed by...

Public healthcare costs are rising. Governments need to get them under control. In Europe, that means the systematic use of health technology assessments (HTA) and reference pricing. The US, on the ot...

For years, their voices went unheard. And their opinions were ignored. But not anymore. Thanks to the internet and social media, there is a growing and vocal group of Key Opinion Leaders (K...

It was supposed to be the “epoch of biosimilars”, or drugs that copied existing biologics but had the potential to be more cost-effective. Yet five years later, biosimilars have failed to reach their...

It’s difficult to quantify. Its role constantly changes. And despite all efforts to gain transparency, the field of medical science liaison (MSL) remains an elusive—seemingly immeasurable—yet undeniab...

Between now and 2019, a vast range of blockbuster drugs will go off patent, opening the floodgates in the EU to the biosimilars market. Already established there since 2006, biosimilars are set to be...

Every day, it seems better, faster and more advanced mobile digital devices are being launched, along with apps, operating systems and user interfaces. The challenge isn’t just keeping up wi...

Every day, it seems better, faster and more advanced mobile digital devices are being launched, along with apps, operating systems and user interfaces. The challenge isn’t just keeping up wi...

The symbiotic relationship between key opinion leaders (KOLs) and the pharmaceutical industry is dynamic and ever-changing. But while the industry knows what it wants from KOLs, what do KOLs need from...

Budgets are tight. Payer funding for new products is dwindling. And for pharmaceutical companies, market access is more and more difficult to attain.Across the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and parts...

Failed launches. It sounds a bit harsh, yet when it comes to new product launches, that has increasingly been the pharmaceutical industry’s experience since the recession. A tighter economic climate,...

The bottom line: For payers facing tough financial crunches across Europe, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is becoming increasingly important. Not only is HTA influencing reimbursement, it is havin...

Marketing gimmick or natural evolution?For some, biobetters—drugs similar but superior to the branded reference product—are little more than the natural outcome of a drug’s life-cycle management strat...

The value of PR can seem immeasurable in brand positioning. Yet, in an age of budgetary juggling by marketing departments, the drive to scrutinize ROI is increasingly important. What’s more, as expect...

For years, patients have shouted to be heard. But as online patient communities, chat rooms and forums have gained popularity—and political clout—their voices are resonating. Now being used t...

Marketing excellence. Over the past five years, those two words have been the subject of hype and the focus of management attention. As the pharmaceutical industry struggles with market maturation and...

Digital technology—it's everywhere you look. And nowhere is the impact of digital technology more apparent than new digital job creations and hiring practices within the pharmaceutical industry. ...

Every day, doctors make hundreds of decisions. Decisions that affect patient care, diagnosis, follow up and pharmaceuticals prescribed. What influences those choices? When it comes to prescri...

Who's in charge? It's an increasingly complex question faced by pharma companies when it comes to creating compelling value stories for payers. With governments tightening purse strings, generics flo...

With this year’s election of president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has indicated a willingness to encourage long-term foreign investment in the pharmaceutical industry. Yet while Rousseff has set three cri...

With the launch of Apple's iPad in April 2010, the way we use technology changed forever. Instant, portable and quick, the iPad is expected to sell 50 million units in 2011 alone. Its impact...

After its initial function to build rapport with KOLs, the MSL role has evolved from being a support to sales reps to the forefront of pharmaceutical practice. Lode Dewulf, chief medical affairs offic...

Does your company have a Twitter account? Want to know what all the buzz is about? Whether you are an experienced Twitter user or just curious, Pharma on Twitter: Developing a Presence, shares first-h...

Single symptom. Single illness. Single drug. For years, drug therapy has been built on that basic equation. Yet as genomic biology sheds light on the astonishing intricacy of disease patholo...

Pharma companies began their journey in social media over four years ago with a single initiative, often a Twitter account. Subsequently, they have embarked upon a process of layering their digital fo...

“May you live in interesting times.” Considered a curse by some, the saying could also be a blessing—especially when it comes to the evolving world of market access in Europe. Given its complex geo-po...

From Canada and the US to Japan, the EU and Australia, regulators around the world are establishing guidelines that will pave the way for competition between biosimilars and costly biologics. For many...

Are we witnessing the death of the salesman? Figures from a 2009 survey of physicians suggests that might be the case. Just 17 percent of doctors say they want traditional, linear contact fr...

Blogging offers Pharma companies the opportunity to engage with key constituencies in an informal manner, the ability to present their interpretation of stories pertaining to their organization in the...

They’re costly to develop, fraught with potential patient safety concerns and subject to regulations that have yet to be written. Yet for the pharmaceutical industry, biosimilar monoclonal antibodies...

Pharma continues to await clear advice from those bodies that have traditionally established its guidelines with reference as to how they should direct their activities within the social web. Specific...

Instant feedback. Increased customer satisfaction and accessibility. The right product to the right doctor.The potential of Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) to fulfill those promises is vast. As a strategy...

A rock and a hard place. It’s not a comfortable spot to be, but increasingly, that’s where the pharmaceutical industry finds itself. Politicians in several European markets unilaterally cut prices for...

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives,” Charles Darwin once wrote. “It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Are pharmaceutical sale...

Popular video sharing site YouTube is the third busiest website in the world, visited by almost 109 million unique users each month. Nearly a day and a half's worth of content is uploaded by users on...

As health care expenditures rise, governments, payers, healthcare providers and patients alike are focused intently on one thing: capping runaway costs. For the generics industry, it heralds a boom-ti...

Imagine this: Nearly all the puzzle pieces are in place. The picture is clear, but not yet finished. One part remains. But no matter how you try, something stops it from fitting it in place. For the p...

Unified by geography, culture and language, Latin America nevertheless remains a marketing puzzle for the pharmaceutical industry. Although the Internet is increasing in popularity, it is available on...

Worldwide, the story is the same. Governments want cheaper drugs for their populations, while the number and kinds of diseases affecting them continue to evolve and grow. Since 1976, when Genentech be...

FirstWord Market Intelligence Collections Biosimilars. Biobetters. Branded and generic drugs. Specialty generics. Pay-for-delay. Individually, they represent big questions for the...

In Europe, the US and other key markets, the story is the same: regulatory change, public opinion and cost containment are all changing the face of stakeholders. Where physicians once spoke with the s...

Around the globe, technology and the digital age are changing the way we live, communicate and conduct business. Nearly 70 percent of Americans play online computer and video games. Fewer and fewer yo...