Advice You - Business

There are two distinctly different ends of your business for marketing purposes. To successfully and profitably market your business, it is critical you fully understand both ends and continue to operate them effe

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ctively and continuously. I will refer to these as “front-end” and “back-end” activities. Each requires different activities. The two need to be kept separate and must never be confused. Before we go on to conside

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

these concepts more fully, I would like to explain the term “Lifetime Value”.

Understanding Lifetime Value Lifetime value is the accumulated value of your customers to your business, over the d

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ration of the customer relationship. For example, we will assume that your average customer produces ?100 of profit per year and you keep them on average for 5 years. Then lifetime value of each customer is on ave

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

age ?500.

Once this is realised, this can become a revelation and can be instrumental in driving your business forward substantially.

With each marketing activity, by being aware of this factor and marketing to

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

lifetime value instead of immediate profit, your business will take on a completely different shape. You will be prepared to invest appropriately to maximise responses.

Front-End Activity This in

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

olves marketing for customer acquisition purposes. Even the largest and most successful of businesses require new customers on an ongoing basis. If you are not constantly and actively marketing for new customers,

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

he size of your customer base will decline with time. Circumstances change, people move, people die, competitors attack and your customer base will decline. This is not an area to be complacent.

The biggest mista

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

e that many business owners make in this area, is attempting to obtain maximum profitability from the first sale with a new customer. The fact you are acquiring a new customer is valuable in itself to your busines

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

s and you will not attract the maximum numbers of customers unless you are offering something of tangible value in return. Here is a list of some of the activities you can do to produce the best response:

·

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

Make irresistible offers to lure new potential customers

· Just break-even on the first sale

· Offer money back, no quibble guarantees

· Communicate the unique benefits of your offering

·

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

Explain the reasons why you are making the offer available

· Limit the offer to a targeted, finite group with a deadline date

Back-End Activity This is where you maximise the profi

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ability from your ongoing customer relationship and ethically create a pipeline of profits. In order to do this you MUST communicate REGULARLY with your existing customer base and make worthwhile offers available

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

to them. Monthly communications is a good target to aim for as a minimum. Segment your customer base into loyalty groups. Loyalty can take account of factors such as, sales revenues, frequency of purchases, servic

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ng “hassle factor” and potential for growth.

By continuing to educate and inform your existing customer base and offer meaningful value to them on an ongoing basis, the more you will benefit from back-end profita

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ility. You need to develop a “conveyor belt” of offers and communications that nurture your customers to greater fulfilment of your products and services. Some of these activities may include:

· Establishi

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

g a customer loyalty programme

· Sending out regular newsletters

· Asking for customer feedback in a survey

· Taking select customers to visit suppliers/manufacturers

· Making a cus

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

tomer referral programme available

The Importance of Keeping Records In order to monitor and refine the responses you receive from all of your marketing activities, requires you to code and track

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

each element. Make sure every advert, flyer, mailer letter etc has a response mechanism and make sure you code each element with a unique reference. Keep records of responses and continue to look for ways to incr

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ase responses.

By combining front-end and back-end activity on an incessant and effective basis you ultimately cannot fail to attract maximum number of customers and maximum rewards for your efforts.

Brian James

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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