Bayer México has experienced an enhanced evolution in the pandemic years that has led it to accelerate the launch of its Market Place and introduce advanced analytics into its consumer listening processes.
The pharmaceutical industry, despite a lagging position in digitalization compared to other sectors such as finance, telecommunications, entertainment… has gained strong momentum in recent years on the path of innovation, coinciding with new forms of remote interaction. that the COVID-19 pandemic imposed and with the prominence that the sector had in the context of a health crisis. Bayer México is spearheading this process in Latin America and Josué Careaga, head of Customer Insights and Business Analytics at Bayer México, explains how the technological changes introduced on multiple fronts, both in talent and technology itself, have helped them. to better understand the needs and context of their clients – whether they are patients, doctors or any health professional – and apply all this knowledge in the design of value offerings in their products.
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified digitalization in the pharmaceutical industry. What technological tools have you developed to face this new reality? How have you used them to address challenges?
Without a doubt, the adaptability, resilience, collaboration and passion in our work led us hand in hand to accelerate digitalization and, in a certain way, advance the transformation that we already had underway. No one was prepared for a global pandemic and, in an environment where physical interactions are an important link in our daily lives, it meant a lot. For this reason, an entire community (made up of our strategic support areas Marketing and Sales Operations and Digital, and the teams of each franchise) managed to promote the use of digital channels to carry out these interactions. Likewise, we are looking for how to more effectively measure the adoption and tendency of health professionals to interact through these channels. We include new ways of organizing our activities, we rely on more dynamic and adaptable approaches to speed up the development of information analysis and integration prototypes. We also venture into different advanced analytics techniques to better understand the behavior of our consumers and how we could provide them with more value. These techniques have allowed us to generate predictions to estimate, and in some cases understand, atypical behavior in sales, since the pandemic implied a brutal impact on medication purchases (both increases and decreases).
How do patients perceive these changes? Do they mean improvements for them?
Yes. I would think, above all, about the customization of the products. In patient support and support programs that are increasingly more appropriate and truly useful to the patient.
This means a more individualized approach, I understand.
Of course; For patients, the opportunity to have products within their reach that can be candidates for improvement in multiple factors: use and indication, treatment coverage, education campaigns and awareness, in order to know the best way to generate products that provide tangible benefits. to our actors.
For Bayer this is a great benefit, since it allows us to continue enriching knowledge about diseases, their evolution and follow-ups with a certain indication. Likewise, that, in the future, the launches of new products consider a broader environment of knowledge (context) of the multiple conditions that are treated with our products, always focusing on a significant improvement for the patient, in their quality of life. , progress and control of the condition (as in the case of the innovation that Bayer is carrying out in different conditions strongly focused on cell and gene therapy).
We are developing advanced analytics models that suggest recommendations based on data findings that are not only quantitative, but also qualitative and go beyond historical performance. They incorporate aspects such as the economic situation of the country, the impact and adaptation to the pandemic, security… among others and how they impact the local market.
How would you say the Latin American pharmaceutical industry is in terms of digitalization in relation to other sectors? Has the intensification of innovation as a result of the pandemic served to place it on par with the most advanced sectors?
The pharmaceutical industry in Latin America is in constant evolution. And absolutely, the digital propulsion generated by the pandemic has helped boost the industry’s position. Before the pandemic we observed more traditional information management, if we compared it to industries such as finance or retail, for example. In the specific case of Bayer, we have had a strong acceleration in this regard. All critical areas of the organization have matured and have a more dynamic and action-oriented approach when it comes to asking what can be changed on a day-to-day basis to generate a more efficient process. This acceleration has translated, for example, into the fact that we have been ready to launch our e-commerce: Bayer Store and we have been the first pharmaceutical company in Mexico to have a market place. Likewise, our approach to work is very agile and adaptable.
The consumer has also evolved: the patient is now another patient. A more digital patient. The pandemic posed a challenge: many people, due to care and prevention, did not go out and many doctors had to rely on telemedicine. We know that not all patients are technologically savvy; But, to our surprise, we did studies and some of the profiles with the most interaction with innovative channels turned out to be seniors.
What role do social networks play in active customer listening and data analysis?
The use of digital sources – which can be social networks, digital campaigns, the Bayer Store or Google Analytics, for example – is essential for us. They are innovative means of contact through which the actors with whom we interact allow us to delve into their reality and context in order to carry out more enriching analyses, rescuing findings that we could be leaving out. Which is a great challenge, since there are different regulatory limitations to carry out direct interaction with patients and Bayer takes great care to comply with these policies and regulations with standards validated by compliance committees at the country, regional and global level.
Could you tell us about Bayer’s strategy when it comes to understanding and obtaining market data?
There is a close relationship between what is sought with a product that helps health care and what each of the main actors with whom we interact seeks. The perspective of a patient and that of a health professional is not the same. Nor that of an institution or a research group. However, all of them are valid and valuable to understand them better.
Identifying the interrelationship of the findings of each segment of actors is what allows us to discover insights of true value, as they can reveal the turning points of the expectations of each segment.
What we have learned in previous experiences allows us to consider those particular findings, as well as those that the segments have in common – the inflection that I spoke about previously -, in order to trace user stories, illnesses, indications, evolution generated by treatments, etc.
To achieve the above, we seek to ensure that the inputs from these findings can be integrated. The harmonization of all relevant data associated with the products, their use, the benefits they generate in patients, among others, directs us to the creation of specific strategies always focused on the benefit of our actors.
What do you mean by findings?
By discovery we refer to some custom or daily life that consumers, doctors or any of our actors have. An adequate and in-depth understanding of a behavior. A finding may be, for example, the identification of the criteria that contribute the most to the care of a condition and that can greatly improve living with it and of course, desirably its cure. Another example may be cases in which the healthcare professional health detects an additional benefit of the product for the patient, among others.
To achieve an understanding of the actors with whom we interact, a data strategy is essential that is enriched not only with the data collected from patients, health professionals, institutions; but with findings from market studies, from our business partners and from the market and industry itself.
What methods do they use that can provide insights into consumer needs, improve their experience, and provide internal value to the company?
One of the greatest pillars for achieving patient learning are market research studies, since they not only allow us to measure what is currently happening in the market – behavior of competitors, impact events in market segments – but also We seek to know in more detail the context of the conditions that impact their follow-up, and that can indicate various search criteria in a research study.
Another relevant pillar is the constant evolution of the data ecosystem we have, since we seek to enrich it with not only internal, but also external data that complement the knowledge of our actors and give greater meaning to the hypotheses proposed and validated or rejected in the market research studies.
The last pillar that contributes to this knowledge is the analysis of the digital experiences of our actors to have the necessary elements to know the appropriate context and improve the approaches that occur through these channels. In this way, we can understand the level of approach and assimilation with respect to innovative and digital environments and continue to improve the value we add to our actors.
How do you imagine the future of the pharmaceutical sector in Latin America?
The industry has great challenges ahead; but, strategically guided, they will lead to robust digital evolution. By enabling collaborations that transcend the organization’s borders, there will be a more connected ecosystem that will allow us to offer better solutions through our products and thus achieve the definition of a health-tech environment that encourages collaborations with external team forces ( startups and technological partners) that fortunately Bayer is carrying out in a satisfactory manner through our regional and local Digital Partnerships team (Armando Romero). All this and other incursions that are being generated in the industry will undoubtedly increase the complexity of competition in the sector, but at the same time, it will achieve significant advances and great benefits for society.
Taken from: MIT Technology Review
By: Sergio López
September 20, 2022