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The future of mobile business in pharma (5/1/2002)

According to a new report from Roland Berger, titled The Value of Wireless Applications for the Pharmaceutical Industry, wireless Internet usage is set to grow at a faster rate than traditional Internet connections via PC, while the number of wireless Internet users is expected to be higher than fixed users by 2003.

Despite increasing demand for new products in the wireless market, the report highlights three main obstacles that have to be overcome before mobile business can ensure long-term success. Those challenges are: higher bandwidth; the emergence of standards for mobile solutions and the operating system; and powerful new wireless devices.

“Continued evolution in mobile devices and a constant extension in bandwidth will have a direct impact on the growth rate of mobile business applications,” the report’s authors contend. “GSM limits the availability of and the investment opportunities for wireless services. Users will have constant connectivity to the Internet as soon as GPRS becomes the standard network technology with data transfer speed increasing significantly.”

The authors also suggest an emergence of new services within the mobile business arena. “New applications like online radio, location-based services, ticket-booking, picture exchange and games will appear and foster the demand for better quality and usability. 3rd Generation technology will, finally, offer total interactivity.”

In addition, according to the report, data security remains another concern for the industry. “Wireless applications will only undergo the projected upturn if the infrastructure guarantees transactional integrity, including encryption, secure authentication and digital certificates. Companies offering Internet security technologies have therefore experienced an intense demand.”

Despite its expectations for wireless and mobile business, Roland Berger points out no evidence exists to suggest wireless will replace the fixed Internet. “Wireless Internet will not simply exchange the fixed Internet since it will not be able to perform all the functions a user is accustomed to at home or in the office. Each technology has its specific advantages but there are overlapping areas of application. Mobile business will absorb parts of the transactions and services undertaken through fixed Internet terminals today but at the same time amplify the penetration of e-solutions.”

In fact, the report’s authors predict value in investments in the healthcare arena. “So far the major targets for improvement have been set with marketing to physicians and patients as well as the clinical trial process,” they point out. “Other areas like manufacturing have been identified but not yet exploited. With 53% of all Americans in favor of purchasing medication online, investment in this sector seems worthwhile and promising.”

However, they believe the success of wireless in the healthcare sector depends heavily on the adoption rate of doctors. Only when the number of medical doctors using wireless devices reaches a critical mass, the authors contend, can the pharmaceutical industry expect large returns on its investments in mobile marketing initiatives.

According to the report, there are three options for pharma companies when it comes to mobile business: invest in it; prepare for it; or wait and see. The report suggests it’s those who chose to invest now, who’ll see the greatest rewards.

“Companies investing largely into mobile applications will have a detailed knowledge of the market, predict future demand and co-operate with the winners of this technology. The company waiting for another boom in mobile technology is in danger of missing out on a competitive advantage. It minimizes short-term risk by waiting for a standard to appear. The danger lies in the fact that all available partnerships may already be taken and the competitors might have gained detailed knowledge. That way the company will find itself at a distinct disadvantage. The companies investing in mobile technology now will have the lead.”

For more information, or to obtain a copy of the report, please contact Carol Szeto (carol_szeto@us.rolandberger.com), co-author of the report and Senior Consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

e-detailing success -- its all in the marketing mix (4/17/2002)

A recent report co-authored by Aptilon Health and Leonard Lerer of INSEAD reveals e-detailing is gaining a foothold within the pharma industry, as marketers seek to reach doctors with little, or no spare time to allocate to visiting sales reps. According to the report, the growing success of e-detailing relies on integrating it as part of an overall marketing mix.

The report, Next Generation e-Detailing: Segmentation, Targeted Personalization & Analytics Drive Profits outlines a growing body of evidence supporting the e-channel as a useful, cost effective component of the marketing mix.

According to the report, “there are a number of factors which will contribute to the increasing application of e-detailing in pharmaceutical marketing in coming years.

These factors include:

“Concern over the return on investment of sales representative detailing. Clearly the sales representative “arms race” cannot continue indefinitely and companies are seeking innovative routes for reaching target physicians, including those that are currently refusing to see a representative, with key promotional messages,” the authors observed.

Companies will increasingly turn to the e-channel as a way of extracting maximum value from sales and marketing expenditures, especially when faced with looming expiry of key patents, unspectacular pipelines and growing price-control pressures.

As the pharmaceutical marketing environment becomes more complex, pharmaceutical companies are relying more heavily on digital technologies to provide “segmented” solutions, aimed at optimising individual promotion response as opposed to aggressively marketing single products.

A number of factors will drive the integration of the e-channel into the regular marketing mix, including: the ability to deliver measurable results and detailed response data to the enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) system; demand from online physicians and consumers; pressure to create more and better interactions with physicians and consumers; and growing interest from pharmaceutical marketers in leveraging new opportunities generated by e-prescribing, e-clinical trials, e-medical records and e-practice management.

The report cites IMS Health research which shows, from 1996-2000, pharmaceutical companies increased their promotional spend towards doctors by a compound annual growth rate of 9.6%. In addition, direct-to-consumer (DTC) spending, which IMS Health reported to be virtually non-existent before 1996, grew by 25% annually during the same period. The research also reveals current DTC spending represents slightly more than 15.7% of total production spend.

According to the Aptilon report, US pharmaceutical sales are expected to grow at a rate of 12-14% through 2006, outpacing aggregate worldwide growth of 9.1% during the same period. In addition, the authors predict this continued expansion will translate to between $1.7 billion and $2.7 billion in new promotional spend each year, for the next five years, to be directed towards key online and offline marketing activities, particularly to those that deliver quantitative measurable results, such as detailing, sampling and DTC.

“Similar to the rapid adoption of DTC as a promotional channel, industry analysts see the use of e-detailing accelerating over the coming years as more and more marketers incorporate this e-channel as part of their promotional mix and take advantage of the deep segmentation and measurable results it provides,” the authors observed. “While different for each product scenario, e-detailing is expected to grow to approximately 10-15% of the overall marketing mix by 2004.”

The report also suggests the most effective e-detailing campaigns are those that can:

Identify key relevant market micro-segments;

Reach members of the desired target segments;

Engage participating physicians in an interactive product information experience that is personalized to the relevant physician and targeting segmentation;

Dynamically tailor product messaging to best respond to individual physician interests;

Effectively communicate brand messaging to target physicians;

Track all participant data, including explicit interactions and “click-throughs,” in addition to implicit behavioral data;

Provide detailed segment-based campaign analytics;

Deliver opt-in data to aggregating Web sites and customer relationship management systems;

Effectively manage regulatory, confidentiality and privacy issues and;

Leverage campaign results to other territories as part of a global initiative.

“e-detailing cannot exist isolated from offline marketing efforts,” the authors concluded. “It is an online extension of directed pharmaceutical marketing and an integral part of the mix. Whether for direct requirements to deliver samples on the next pharmaceutical representative visit to the physician or for aggregating data as part of pharmaceutical company Web site and CRM systems, e-marketing providers must be prepared to deliver opt-in physician level data to the company systems.”

RxCentric: Busy physicians turning to e-detailing (3/19/2002)

As any pharma rep can tell you, the greatest challenge facing the pharmaceutical industry’s sales forces is simply getting time in a doctor’s already over-scheduled day. In fact, the statistics show that reps only get to the see the doctor on about half of their attempts, and when they do, they get on average two to four minutes to relay information about their company’s products.

That’s left the industry searching for new ways to reach physicians with its marketing messages, and one approach that seems to be gaining favor with both the industry and physicians is e-detailing. According to a new survey conducted by RxCentric, nine out of ten doctors said they will likely participate in online detailing presentations in the next few months and rate the Internet as an “extremely positive” tool for receiving continuing education programs.

According to RxCentric, the findings, presented at last week’s SG Cowen Health Care conference in Boston, underscore an increasing preference by doctors for Internet-based sales presentations and point out a significant cost savings opportunity for pharmaceutical companies in how they market new drugs.

“As the number of new prescription drugs developed annually has skyrocketed, physicians are hard pressed to keep up with needed information,” said Richard Findlay, President and CEO of RxCentric. “Online detailing promises to make the education process easier, more convenient for doctors, and less expensive for pharmaceutical companies.”

According to Findlay, online detailing has rapidly become an attractive supplement to traditional detailing as the amount of information that pharmaceutical companies need to convey to physicians rapidly proliferates. Recent reports, in fact, show a 59% increase in new medications brought to market in the 1990s compared to the previous decade.

Sending an ever-growing pool of reps out to detail an increasingly time-crunched group of prescribing doctors is proving inefficient and expensive, Findlay observed. According to RxCentric, online detailing extends the reach of pharmaceutical marketing efforts in many ways, but perhaps most importantly by offering 24-hour access, ensuring physicians can get the information they need, when they need it – often after clinical hours.

“I like the convenience of being detailed during a time I select at home,” said one doctor responding to the survey. “My office is very busy and I honestly do not have the time to spend with reps that I would like. I’m interested in hearing what the pharmaceutical industry has to say about their products, but not when I’m already 45 minutes behind in my appointments in the middle of a hectic afternoon.”

The survey revealed that a majority of physicians have or would participate in online detailing. Seventy-one percent (71%) of physicians responding to the survey said they have recently participated in a detail presentation over the Internet. In addition, more than 90% said they would participate in an online detail presentation if they received an invitation. And according to RxCentric, online brand presentations gained an equal preference versus traditional in-person presentations by pharmaceutical sales reps.

“I enjoy the Internet programs and feel they are an excellent way to detail,” said one participant.

In addition, to convenience for physicians, online details offer longer interactions with physicians at significant cost savings. According to the study, online details average about eight minutes (versus two minutes for more traditional in-person detailing presentations) and cost $12 to $15 per minute, rather than the average $100 per minute for traditional sales calls.

“With the cost of an online detail being a fraction of that of a traditional detail, emerging ROI data for online marketing efforts are motivating pharmaceutical companies to reevaluate and reorganize the composition of their sales and marketing strategies to gain a marketing and financial advantage,” said Findlay.

To learn more about the study and RxCentric, visit the company’s Web site at rxcentric.com.

Pharmaceuticals online – the doctors’ view point (2/19/2002)

The pharmaceutical industry spends a lot of its time looking for innovative ways to reach physicians with its marketing messages. A wealth of new online technologies have emerged, but are they gaining ground with the doctors they target?

A new study from Fulcrum Analytics and Deloitte Research, “Taking the Pulse: Physicians and Emerging Information Technologies,” examines the uptake of emerging information technologies by physicians. The report, a follow-up to a similar study conducted by the sponsors last year, takes an in-depth look at many of the latest online tools and technologies aimed at today’s time-taxed doctors.

“The future is not about replacing the existing sales and marketing infrastructure,” the study’s authors contend. “In fact, as we have learned collectively, it’s really about using the Internet and technology to supplement and reinforce other offline investments at a relatively low cost per interaction compared to traditional customer marketing and service initiatives.”

According to the study, online interaction with physicians is becoming increasingly important. In fact, 66% of online physicians (approximately 350,000 practicing doctors) access information related to pharmaceutical products via the Internet.

And they’re not just visiting third-party Web sites to do their research. Thirty- two (32%) of online physicians, and 44% of Professional Users (those who consider the Internet as an essential part of their practice), have visited a pharmaceutical company-sponsored Web site in the last three months.

“Knowing 165,000 online physicians are actively using corporate Web sites is a call to action for pharma and life sciences companies to evaluate their relative investments in these channels, and to pursue opportunities to identify these valuable users actively whenever possible – through registration or personalized services,” the study’s authors advise.

The leading activity at pharma-sponsored sites is accessing information about a new drug. Sixty-one percent (61%) of all physicians and 74% of Professional Users reported that access to information about a new drug is their primary reason for visiting pharma Web sites. Other draws include access to prescribing information about prescription products and access to general disease information.

In addition, nearly 40% of physicians visiting pharma Web sites are accessing information about clinical trials, and 34% are looking for information about drugs in the pipeline. “This population represents a significant market opportunity for companies to promote key products prior to a formal launch,” the authors conclude.

One-third of physicians logging onto pharma sites are seeking product sampling information and one-quarter are scoping out the types of online materials their patients are accessing.

The report indicates interest in e-detailing is on the rise among physicians. In last year’s study, 26% of all physicians showed interest in the electronic delivery of information about new and existing prescription drugs. In 2001, 38% of all physicians and 57% of Professional Users indicated an interest in e-detailing technologies.

According to the study’s authors that represents about 210,000 practicing physicians with a broadly defined interest in e-detailing and other online pharma marketing programs. “A growing number of physicians are recognizing the potential of the Web to reduce the amount of time they spend accessing pharmaceutical information through other channels,” they observe.

Physicians currently using e-detailing, according to the study, want to allocate only about 15% of the total time they spend accessing pharmaceutical information to electronic detailing as a channel. “While most physicians currently using e-detailing actually prefer to take e-detailing time away from the time they spend with a sales rep, they still want to allocate most of their time to getting information from the sales rep,” the authors observe. “It’s not about limiting or promoting access to one source; it’s about the effective integration of all available sources and channels.”

According to the report, 25% of all physicians and 32% of the Professional User segment report they have engaged in an e-detailing program. Of those participating in e-detailing, 80% intend to participate again in the next 12 months.

Of those not currently participating in e-detailing programs, 22% of online physicians and 34% of Professional Users expressed interest in participating in such programs in the future. According to the study’s authors, this potential new market translates to an additional 15% of all physicians.

“[e-Detailing is] not about having an isolated ‘e’ strategy to reach a physician audience; it’s about using all channels and resources to effectively reach the largest audience for the lowest possible overall investment,” the authors contend. “If pharma companies can realistically migrate targeted segments of physicians to electronic detailing programs, the benefits will ultimately accrue to both the physician user (through increased convenience) and the pharmaceutical company (with increased exposure and optimized total access time). The bottom line is that companies must continually evaluate e-detailing as a critical part of the overall strategy.”

To learn more about physician attitudes and adoption habits for Internet technologies in general, be sure to read today’s first feature – Physicians and emerging IT technologies – basic attitudes and adoption habits. To learn more about the complete study, be sure to visit the sponsors’ Web sites at health.fulcrumanalytics.com and dc.com/research.

Surveys and more surveys: All the latest statistics on everything from e-detailing to GRID computing (1/24/2002)

We know you’re always looking for the latest statistics to help you make your business case. And there are a lot of new numbers out there to kick off the New Year, so we’ve compiled a sampling from some of the most recent surveys.

e-detailing: "e-Detailing, e-CME, PDAs and Other e-Promotional Tools – Physician Attitudes and Experiences, and Role in Pharmaceutical Promotion" - The Rowin Group

A survey of physicians measuring their views toward e-detailing and PDA-based promotion. The survey was based on three focus groups and 600 questionnaires completed over the Internet.

Results:

Almost all physician specialist groups have participated in e-details and have individuals who use PDAs in their practice.
Participation in e-detailing is highest among family practitioners at 27%. The five other groups in order of frequency are neurologists (25%), internists (23%), rheumatologists (21%), cardiologists (20%) and oncologists (18%).
Many generalists reported being detailed by iPhysicianNet; specialists mentioned higher interaction with Physicians Interactive and MyDrugRep.com.
PDA use is highest among infectious disease specialists (66%) but followed closely by their colleagues in cardiology (61%), oncology (50%), neurology (50%), psychiatry (50%) and internal medicine (44%).
Following the lead of their colleagues, about 25% more physicians from each group plan to start using a PDA in 2002.

Scott-Levin's ePromotion Report 2001

The study includes findings from online interviews with 500 physicians conducted through Scott-Levin Linx Online Market Research, as well as the opinions of more than 10,000 doctors surveyed on their experiences with e-details and e-events.

Results:

Among doctors with access to the Internet, more than 80 percent use the Internet every day, and almost all (97 percent) use it at least once a week for health care research or pharmaceutical product
Between the first and third quarters of 2001, the percentage of doctors reporting participation in e-promotion activity rose to 52 % from 39 %.
Almost half (49%) of physicians say they receive one or two invitations per month to participate in e-promotion activities (details or meeting and events).
More than four-fifths of doctors say they encourage patients to use the Internet for health information and they recommend a wide variety of sites.
Gastroenterologists (87%) are the specialists most likely to be invited to participate in e-promotion, followed by neurologists and psychiatrists (both 83%).
The companies most active in e-promotion during the study period were Novartis (77 activities), GlaxoSmithKline(68) and Merck (58).

Internet access: “Forecast and Analysis of the Worldwide Internet Access Device Market: 2000-2005” – Cahners In-Stat/MDR

Forecast:

The worldwide market for Internet access devices (personal computers, mobile phones, Internet set top boxes, and Internet and smart appliances) will grow at an overall annual rate of 41.6% in unit terms between 2000 and 2005.
The PC and mobile phone segments currently comprise just over 93% of the industry will continue to represent the majority throughout the forecast period.
Smart appliances will have the highest Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) at 100.8%.

GRID computing: “GRID and distributed computing in pharmaceutical research and development processes” – Silico Research

Silico Research surveyed 49 executives at life science organizations between November and December 2001. In addition, Silico conducted interviews with leading vendors in the sector.

Results:

Clustered and distributed computing is a core component of the IT strategies of virtually all large and medium-sized life science companies and is becoming a core component of the strategies of small organizations. Penetration rates are close to 85% in large pharmaceutical companies and 65% in other life science organizations.
The most commonly deployed distributed computing technology in the life sciences are Linux-based clusters, with penetration rates around 69%.
The market for clustered, distributed and GRID technologies is approximately $85 million. This market is growing at 38% a year and will reach $222 million by 2004.
The market for high performance computing hardware, storage and services is significantly larger than the market for clustered, distributed and GRID technologies at $2,450 million.

Biggest Benefits Yet to Come for e-Pharma (11/15/2001)

This is a contributed article from Pharmexonline discussing the remaining opportunities that lie ahead for e-business in the pharmaceutical industry. The article is a report by Pharmaexonline from eyeforpharma’s recent e-Sales and Marketing in Pharma event.

Conservatism has served the pharmaceutical industry well in the early stages of the Internet revolution, but it now needs to furiously innovate and even sometimes "fail" to harness the potential of new technology.

While many other industries were swept along by the hype and early promise of e-commerce the pharmaceutical industry largely took a more measured approach and avoided the worst of the pain of the crash that has left the telecoms and technology sectors reeling.

Less than two years ago a new era was announced, but the promised exponential growth in online healthcare revenues has largely failed to materialise.

"The reality has fallen short of the hype," Stephen Philips, head of life sciences, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, told delegates at the e-sales and marketing conference in Amsterdam. "In pharma what we saw is more of a quantum shuffle than a quantum leap".

He argued that the current more cautious environment, in which pharma firms closely scrutinise what their return on e-business investments will be, was far more pragmatic. "It’s a more tenable platform to move forward on founded on stronger business foundations."

Although not in the very van of the e-business boom the pharmaceutical industry has nevertheless invested massively in new communications technologies. According to estimates by Cap Gemini Ernst and Young the industry is now investing between 0.5-1% of sales and marketing spend on e-ventures, which extrapolates to an investment of $2-4 billion globally.

Not all e-investments have yet delivered but others, particularly in clinical trials and R&D, have been impressive, stressed Philips. "Some firms have seen a compression of the time from clinical trials to submission by 40%. And 100% of firms are using or planning to use electronic data capture."

But he told delegates that the greatest benefits were yet to come as firms focus e-investments in sales and marketing through integrated e-detailing and e-CRM developments.

In July 2001 Cap Gemini Ernst and Young and analysts Gartner Group carried out an e-CRM survey that asked 20 pharma firms to identify what drove sales revenues. The results were revealing: while 32% of respondents identified product as key, some 49% attributed sales revenues principally to sales and marketing activities.

The clear implication is that investments targeted at developing sophisticated sales and marketing channels when integrated with a far clearer picture of the customer will potentially have the greatest impact on pharma firms' bottom line.

Rowena Track, Bayer Pharmaceutical’s vice-president Global e-business, argued the technology now available offered entirely new opportunities. "We can now process, transmit and store data with unprecedented efficiency," said Track. "…this creates significant opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to innovate."

For Theo Nieuwenhuis, Bristol Myers Squibb’s vice president of e-business, the key to making e-business work is making sure it is a core part of the core business strategy. "An e-business strategy will fail unless it is tightly aligned with business strategy." Other keys to success he argued are "clear leadership support and sponsors".

Dr Tilman Binder, head of the pharmaceutical industry unit at SAP, told the conference that even failure can be positive, as long as you learn from it. "With e-detailing it's important to do something just to get experience to see if it works." He offered some simple advice to the audience: "Start more projects and kill more projects earlier".

If you want to find out more about what happened at eyeforpharma e-Sales and Marketing Europe click here and order all the transcripts at once. Want to see the slides that went along with this presentation? We'll send them to you - order here.

e-Detailing Moves Into Mainstream (11/15/2001)

This is a contributed article from Pharmexonline and discusses e-detailing in the pharma industry. The article is a report by Pharmaexonline from eyeforpharma’s recent e-Sales and Marketing in Pharma event in Amsterdam.

Faced with spiralling marketing costs, reduced product lifecycles, and an increasing reliance on "blockbuster" drug launches, pharmaceutical companies are turning to Internet technologies to help them more effectively market and sell their products and develop new channels to an increasingly complex customer base.

The challenge faced by pharmaceutical executives attending eyeforpharma's e-sales and marketing in pharma conference in Amsterdam, is to identify how new communications technologies can provide their firms with a crucial competitive edge, and keep tabs on their rivals initiatives.

The buzzword of the conference was e-detailing - using Internet-based communications to provide a value-added marketing channel to reach prescribers and complement the activities of pharma firms' expensive networks of sales reps.

Alisdair Mackintosh, of Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, told the conference that there were clear signs the traditional model of constantly expanding networks of sales representatives – a model essentially unchanged for 40 years – was reaching the end of the line.

He said the latest research suggested that "putting more and more reps on the road" was a model "close to the point of inflexion in many big markets".

In the US alone the number of pharma reps has almost doubled over the past decade, while the number of physicians has remained fairly static. More and more reps are chasing essentially the same number of physicians. Some estimates suggest that 40% of details simply "fail at the reception desk".

Yet the growth of sales forces continues, fuelled by the rise of blockbuster products whose launch spends can exceed $500m. Mackintosh pointed out that the global marketing spend on Claritin alone last year exceeded that of Coca Cola.

"The industry is becoming more like the Hollywood movie industry," said Mackintosh. "The importance of time to peak sales is crucial."

The promise of e-detailing is to use communications technology to maximise the effectiveness of marketing and detailing efforts and offer physicians a range of convenient interactive channels.

One company that has been in the van of deploying e-detailing is Aventis, which has developed a range of e-detailing initiatives in different markets, including: live two-way video detailing, Internet-accessed continuing medical education programmes, e-mail exchange, e-newsletter and information access sites.

Kirk Schueler, senior vice-president, e-business at Aventis Pharma, told the conference that Aventis was "just beginning virtual detailing," but the initial results have been encouraging.

In the US and Germany Aventis is now offering video-detailing (v-detailing) in partnership with IPhysicianNet – using a broadband connection and webcams to allow a physician to have an interactive video detail with a pharma rep on their computer screen.

IPhysician.Net says its video detailing shows a 14% increase in purchasing by using the tool. Schueler said he anticipated "similar or better results".

Whereas a traditional face-to-face detail typically lasts about four minutes, Schueler reported Aventis' US e-detailing sales centre launched in June, found that physician-requested calls were lasting 12-14 minutes, in which 3-4 products were discussed and far more online visuals were used.

Other detailing initiatives presented included programmes based on mobile personal digital assistants (PDAs), linking pharma firms to both physicians and their patients.

Timo Ahopelto, chief executive of mobile technology firm CRF Box told the conference that a trial involving the launch of a new insulin therapy and pen, in which 20 physicians each recruited 25 patients who were issued a Palm PDA had had generated revenues of $310,000.

"Wireless, real-time patient monitoring is a key detailing tool for pharmaceutical marketers," said Ahopelto. "This is potentially going to change the way we conduct marketing and clinical R&D programmes."

Other speakers argued that a lot more value was still to be realised from existing technology investments and maturer technologies, such as portals and websites. Ruth Stone, of First Consulting Group, told the conference "a lot of technology has yet been implemented to full advantage"

This message was echoed by Professor Leonard Lerer, senior research fellow at Insead Healthcare Initiatives. He questioned how many physicians would ever use channels such as video detailing "10 perhaps 20%, we don't know". Instead, he argued that "segmentation is the key to e-detailing" and said pharma companies need to develop the best offering for different market segments, reaching these segments through multiple channels - which in many cases, he suggested, will be quite simple.

Professor Lerer concluded the combination of customer relationship management (CRM) and e-detailing, if integrated and correctly implemented, will be essential components of 21st century pharmaceutical marketing.

For Mackintosh the key change from the initial hype of e-business two years ago is that most pharma firms have now placed e-business in their mainstream business divisions, rather than within stand alone business units. "E is starting to move into the mainstream".