1 00:00:06,220 --> 00:00:09,020 Hi, everyone! I hope you're having a great day  2 00:00:09,020 --> 00:00:12,220 and welcome to a new episode of Pharma Insights, 3 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:18,680 the talk show created by Platforce with the aim of connecting, networking and exchanging ideas 4 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:22,540 with professionals from the Pharma industry  from all over the world. 5 00:00:22,820 --> 00:00:24,540 My name is Juliana Kreisel and 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,520 I will be one of your hosts for today 7 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,380 This episode is dedicated to commercial excellence 8 00:00:31,380 --> 00:00:33,240 in the era of AI. 9 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:38,700 We will discuss how AI-driven tools are  reshaping sales and marketing strategies 10 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:40,700 in the pharma industry. 11 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,200 Our experts will discuss common challenges 12 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,880 like regulations, HCP engagement, and consent 13 00:00:47,940 --> 00:00:52,360 offering insightful case studies and experiences. 14 00:00:53,060 --> 00:00:54,360 As you may know, 15 00:00:54,620 --> 00:00:58,100 I'm not the only moderator for today so 16 00:00:58,100 --> 00:01:01,180 I will introduce my co-host and co-moderator 17 00:01:01,180 --> 00:01:05,080 Mr Stefan Repin, Head of Marketing here at Platforce. 18 00:01:05,260 --> 00:01:06,500 Hi, Stef! 19 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,220 Hello, Juliana!  How are you, everyone? 20 00:01:10,340 --> 00:01:13,840 I hope you're good on this Thursday. It feels like a Friday to me. 21 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,580 But we're gonna make the best we can 22 00:01:16,660 --> 00:01:21,120 to make this show a show to remember for you. 23 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,120 And we have some amazing guests today. 24 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:27,440 Again, the topic is AI. You can't talk enough about AI. 25 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,940 So without further ado let's introduce the guests. 26 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,120 Right? That's why we are here. 27 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:37,360 Definitely!  So I would like to introduce our first guest 28 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:41,520 Mr. Mohamed Amer. Hello, Mohamed! How are you? 29 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:43,520 Hi, Juliana. How are you doing? 30 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,520 I'm good. How are you? 31 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,240 How's everything? 32 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,360 All is well. Welcome to all the guests! 33 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:54,700 We're so happy to have you here! 34 00:01:54,720 --> 00:02:01,180 Thank you. Thank you kindly for joining and  our second guest: Muhammed Sajjad 35 00:02:01,180 --> 00:02:03,180 Hi, how are you? 36 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:10,520 Hi, Juliana. Hi, Stefan. Hi, Amer. I am good.  Hope you're doing good too. 37 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,160 Yes! Thank you all. 38 00:02:13,260 --> 00:02:21,960 Thanks our panel for joining and our attendees for tuning in.  Before we start, I just have a few announcements 39 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:26,480 First, as you know, we would love to hear from you  so don't hesitate to drop your comments 40 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,240 or questions in the comment section.  41 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,660 I will share them. I would love to share that. 42 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:39,180 On this special occasion we have my colleague  and social media guru Malén D'Urso 43 00:02:39,300 --> 00:02:45,620 and she's going to help me introduce your ideas  to the panel live in this stream 44 00:02:45,620 --> 00:02:47,620 and my second announcement 45 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,340 and I promise this is the last one, 46 00:02:49,340 --> 00:02:53,740 I wanted to remind you that we would love to hear from you directly 47 00:02:53,820 --> 00:03:00,680 in how we can improve our comments so for this  we have prepared a brief form with some topics 48 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:05,260 on what we can bring or what topics we can discuss in the future 49 00:03:05,260 --> 00:03:08,880 so please do not forget to leave your comments and questions. 50 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:15,480 Malén will be there and  as well, she's going to post the link 51 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,560 for this form so please complete it! 52 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,700 So without any further delay and without any announcements, 53 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:28,240 let's start this topic and this talk show. Stef? 54 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:33,160 Yeah, yeah. Awesome to see everyone 55 00:03:33,220 --> 00:03:37,320 so we have a topic which is discussed all the time  about, you know, commercial Excellence 56 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:42,280 Everyone wants to squeeze more money out of their territories. 57 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,280 You know, the territory manager are having a hard time 58 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:53,800 especially when now I'm seeing along  some regions that... because of AI 59 00:03:53,900 --> 00:03:58,040 certain amounts of sales reps and field reps are cut down 60 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,040 and it is a doubtable 61 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:06,040 is a doubtable strategy on my behalf but without further ado, I would like to ask the same 62 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:11,880 the following question: so, how do you guys define "commercial excellence"? 63 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:18,660 In the Pharma industry, Life Sciences, maybe biotech?  And how is AI influencing this definition? 64 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,880 Yeah, please, if you want to go... 65 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:30,340 Yeah, well... In the Pharma world, 66 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:37,560 SFE is really a very sophisticated topic because  in the selling word, in general, 67 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:44,160 selling a pharmaceutical or a medical device  is one of the toughest job that anybody can have 68 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:51,440 and within the pharmaceutical industry the sales rep is one of the most stressed people 69 00:04:51,620 --> 00:04:56,600 in the territory so if you would like  to define what is SFE 70 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,240 so it is defined 71 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:05,720 by the metric that can measure how effective is  the sales activities that are done by the medical rep 72 00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:13,400 so that depends a lot on the metrics that you are using  that depends a lot on the territory 73 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:19,680 the type of product that you are using and it depends as well on the strategy that 74 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:26,200 that you are implementing and  the market segment that you are in. 75 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:30,020 So SFE by itself is 76 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:36,000 how do you assess the effectiveness of your sales force in all aspects 77 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:38,000 from deployment, 78 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:45,340 from territory alignment, from activity planning to activity implementation or execution 79 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:52,720 to how do you manage your incentive scheme or bonus scheme  in order to motivate your medical reps 80 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:59,640 to have you train your medical reps, all these are  under the umbrella of sales force excellence 81 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:08,660 Yeah, I agree on your points.  Just to add to these points that 82 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:11,600 Commercial Excellence evolved by the times. 83 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:15,920 It started from sales force effectiveness, sales force automation 84 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,300 It's different, you can say, different terminology  used in different times 85 00:06:19,300 --> 00:06:21,300 because I have seen 86 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:26,060 the evolution of commercial excellence  in the last 15 to 18 years 87 00:06:26,060 --> 00:06:28,820 so to me in addition to all these things 88 00:06:28,900 --> 00:06:33,380 you have mentioned that  commercial Excellence is basically focusing 89 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:41,800 on the impact of resources that we have overall  and the sales rep is our biggest resource 90 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:47,660 if I talk about the Pharma world because  in pharma world we do not have mass media marketing 91 00:06:47,740 --> 00:06:53,960 social media marketing at that span.  Our customer is focused and we are going to 92 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:59,120 to see our customers that is the healthcare professionals, so in this scenario 93 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:08,000 the biggest resource that we have is our Sales force so  Commercial Excellence revolves around... 94 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,360 Sorry. It's... I think echo in there. Sorry. 95 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:19,020 So Commercial Excellence basically focuses on 96 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:24,240 the impact of resources, especially the sales team,  their calls, that start from the deployment, 97 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:31,360 their planning, their execution, and  the impact of the resources that we have deployed 98 00:07:31,500 --> 00:07:38,760 in front of HCP, not only the sales rep but it also covers the efforts 99 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,180 or the resource from the managers as well. 100 00:07:41,180 --> 00:07:45,100 the coaching time, coaching resources that managers are giving 101 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:52,920 to that sales rep, how that work and the performance  of the sales rep is going to be improved 102 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,720 in either qualitative way or in the quantitative way both 103 00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:59,060 So basically Commercial Excellence evolves around 104 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:04,760 the productivity of the sales team  or the marketing campaigns as well. 105 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:12,000 So to me this is the commercial excellence  and obviously by the time things are 106 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:18,800 I'm going to add to this, now we are in the era  where we are engaging our HCPs digitally 107 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:24,720 from different mediums not only the face to face calls, now we have the Omni Channel approach 108 00:08:24,860 --> 00:08:29,440 where we are also engaging customers  by using different digital mediums as well 109 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:38,960 Yeah, I'm seeing that. I'm seeing the Omnichannel  comes out more and more in the conversation 110 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:47,040 Actually, I'm seeing that omnichannel. Well doctors don't have historically 111 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:51,800 Doctors don't have a lot of time,  so Omni channel is there to help the Medical Rep 112 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,800 unless marketing 113 00:08:54,080 --> 00:09:01,000 Pharma marketing is working together with  the medical reps, the Field Force 114 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:06,100 because very often I see that Global Marketing or  marketing comes with a message 115 00:09:06,100 --> 00:09:08,320 which the field reps do not use. 116 00:09:08,500 --> 00:09:12,240 and then it becomes a mess like  then omni Channel doesn't make sense 117 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,720 but guys, let's turn bak to the initial question. 118 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:21,720 Are you...? Have you seen any good usage of AI? 119 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:26,000 artificial intelligence embedded into 120 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,120 maybe your example or an example of a company that you've seen 121 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:36,980 when it comes to commercial excellence, Sales Force Excellence yeah. 122 00:09:38,580 --> 00:09:40,140 Yeah... 123 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:43,260 Go ahead. Go ahead. 124 00:09:43,260 --> 00:09:46,300 Yeah thank you.   Thank you, Stefan for this. 125 00:09:46,300 --> 00:09:48,300 I think AI is, you can say, 126 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:54,440 from commercial Excellence point of view   we are starting on the AI we are... 127 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,940 beginners, we can't say that we are continuously using AI 128 00:09:58,940 --> 00:10:03,000 but obviously it starts in the Pharma sector as well 129 00:10:03,100 --> 00:10:08,120 initially I've been experiencing  with my one of my previous organizations 130 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:13,360 in the last two to three years where we have started  the sales budgeting through AI 131 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:17,060 because we have historical data, we have historical performances too 132 00:10:17,060 --> 00:10:21,980 So while setting the sales Target for the sales team, it helps. 133 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:29,320 And at the end it ends up  around 95 to 98% accuracy versus the actual sales 134 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:37,560 that came from on the respective period so  that's one of the examples that I have 135 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:39,520 you can say that I experienced. 136 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,940 Apart from the sales Target I have also experienced 137 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:53,640 and we had practices recently,  we are using AI tools like chatGPT for the knowledge part 138 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:57,920 where our reps can easily get knowledge 139 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,200 or get some content from the chatGPT or like other tools. 140 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:04,440 where they have to search on the Google but 141 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,340 ChatGPT or other tools like ChatGPT 142 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:11,040 are you can say very supportive if they want to 143 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:15,860 search an article, search a case you can say, study 144 00:11:16,100 --> 00:11:20,040 regarding any product, any molecule  so they can find out. 145 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:22,040 So these are the few examples 146 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,620 that I have witnessed 147 00:11:24,620 --> 00:11:26,620 but obviously there are lots to go 148 00:11:26,620 --> 00:11:30,500 in the Pharma sector, especially in pharma Commercial Excellence 149 00:11:30,580 --> 00:11:34,160 because we have lot of data in commercial excellence. 150 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:36,920 We have lot of data in terms of HCP 151 00:11:36,980 --> 00:11:40,980 HCP behavior by the time of the adoption ladder change 152 00:11:40,980 --> 00:11:46,360 during that time, the work we have invested 153 00:11:46,420 --> 00:11:51,340 on the HCP and what are their output in the adoption ladder 154 00:11:51,340 --> 00:11:55,280 So we have lot of data not only in the 155 00:11:55,340 --> 00:12:00,720 the customer interaction but also  on the sales level we have sales, 156 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,040 data available, so we have lot of data but 157 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:08,600 it's time to convert that data into information 158 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:11,320 and that information should be converted into insights 159 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,020 because normally we are hanging around 160 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,980 the data and the Big Data during... 161 00:12:17,980 --> 00:12:22,680 handling the big data, we are more investing our time 162 00:12:22,740 --> 00:12:27,520 on the data part but we are not converting that data into information and insight 163 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,520 So that's the part. 164 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:32,840 Amer, please. 165 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,580 Yeah, I think that that's well said.  166 00:12:35,580 --> 00:12:38,460 We have so many information and that has been 167 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:41,980 the case for years and years now with the IMS, 168 00:12:41,980 --> 00:12:44,540 and that is now IQVIA 169 00:12:44,780 --> 00:12:48,580 and having Pharmacy level or territory level data 170 00:12:48,580 --> 00:12:53,860 and how to correlate that with the real performance of each medical rep 171 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:56,500 in his territory or her territory 172 00:12:56,500 --> 00:13:00,160 and how to correlate that as well with the market share 173 00:13:00,260 --> 00:13:01,920 that he or she are generating, 174 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:08,080 all these are aspects that AI has started to play a big role 175 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:16,480 because before that we used to have various BI tools to be able to correlate 176 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:21,780 the data that are coming from the activity or to correlate the results that are being achieved 177 00:13:21,900 --> 00:13:26,040 to the activities that are reported on the CRMs. 178 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:29,820 And this is the future now the way I see it 179 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,240 is that when you are trying to assign certain target 180 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:35,880 to a medical representative or a territory 181 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,120 you have to look into a lot of factors 182 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,840 including the historical sales data within that territory, 183 00:13:42,900 --> 00:13:47,020 the market share, which product is the market leader, 184 00:13:47,020 --> 00:13:49,020  and how is it progressing, 185 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,940 how did it progress, historically speaking 186 00:13:52,940 --> 00:13:59,060 and if you can associate that as well with a little bit of market intelligence 187 00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:02,400 in the form of knowing  188 00:14:02,460 --> 00:14:07,280 what is the competitor doing in that particular territory 189 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:11,860 or in the city or in the country per se, 190 00:14:11,860 --> 00:14:16,140 then you have I would say a path forward into 191 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:23,120 assessing your action plans and deciding  what to do with your medical representatives 192 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:28,840 and how to deploy them and in the best way to ensure their productivity 193 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:33,680 and to sure that you are getting the best possible outcome 194 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,280 or maybe you can also decide to 195 00:14:37,340 --> 00:14:42,880 move reps between territories or move them from one city to the next based on the insight 196 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:48,880 you take out of the artificial intelligence  and the business intelligence tools 197 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:56,080 that predict for you what is the real productivity  for the medical representative because 198 00:14:56,140 --> 00:15:02,840 like Sajjad said, it is the single biggest investment that  a pharmaceutical company is doing commercially 199 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:04,840 is to have a sales force. 200 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:10,180 So the trick is how can you ensure that this investment is paying off 201 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:19,820 and that you're getting your investments work in the best possible outcome or the best possible return 202 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:23,180 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. 203 00:15:23,180 --> 00:15:25,440 Well, since sales reps are the best, 204 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:30,280 Actually I've learned it from you Mohamed, when we had a session back in February, 205 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,900 you said it clearly and loud that 206 00:15:33,940 --> 00:15:38,340 sales reps, Field Force is the biggest expense  that a Pharma company has 207 00:15:38,340 --> 00:15:41,540 you... my question would be: 208 00:15:41,620 --> 00:15:47,720 Is it the research, R&D for drugs is cheaper  in comparison with the Field Force expense? 209 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:51,520 or it's more or there is more expense on the field force? 210 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:53,380 No, of course. 211 00:15:53,380 --> 00:15:54,520 Globally speaking, 212 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,800 if you talk about the R&D, R&D is more expensive  of course because you spend billions 213 00:15:58,860 --> 00:16:02,240 in order to arrive at the stage of commercialization. 214 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:04,940 All the R&D phases. 215 00:16:05,140 --> 00:16:08,480 I'm talking from the commercial aspect. 216 00:16:08,620 --> 00:16:16,120 When you are trying to invest post-launch,  then the Salesforce will cost you the most. 217 00:16:17,220 --> 00:16:20,880 Yeah we're talking about once we have the product. 218 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:24,280 Once we have product ready for the marketing. 219 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:26,660 So we are talking about that post part, 220 00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:32,040 not from the, you can say, the pre-part of the drug manufacturing 221 00:16:32,140 --> 00:16:34,820 we are talking about the commercialization because 222 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:39,940 like FMCGs, we don't invest on the mass media marketing 223 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:45,060 and social media marketing, because there are legal limitations 224 00:16:45,060 --> 00:16:48,380 not only legal but also the ethical limitations because 225 00:16:48,380 --> 00:16:51,180 our customer is HCP. 226 00:16:51,420 --> 00:16:57,200 the HCP is the person who is prescribing the products because patient cannot take drugs directly 227 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:02,860 so ethically we are not allowed to do  the mass media marketing and we are not doing that. 228 00:17:03,020 --> 00:17:07,520 So it's our sales rep who is going  to the doctor or to the HCP 229 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:14,400 to promote their products and share their messages  as per their marketing plans 230 00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:18,660 and countries like Pakistan where we have high share of voice market  231 00:17:18,660 --> 00:17:22,200 because we have a lot of doctors available 232 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,000 in Pakistan and geographically the spread is very high 233 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,100 so it's very important that we deploy 234 00:17:29,180 --> 00:17:35,340 as Amer already said that we deploy our reps  in the high potential territories 235 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:41,340 obviously we have a lot of BI tools, IQVIA data available where we can identify the top potential areas where we have 236 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:48,120 to invest because we have limited resource in any way as far as the human resources are concerned 237 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:52,140 we are deploying in those areas and we are getting the best from those areas 238 00:17:52,140 --> 00:17:54,880 and not only at the time of deployment 239 00:17:54,940 --> 00:17:58,100 but after execution we are continuously monitoring that deployment 240 00:17:58,100 --> 00:18:01,160 that either it works because if we plan 241 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:05,300 50 territories it's not that  all 50 territories are progressing well 242 00:18:05,340 --> 00:18:09,260 so we have to do some corrective actions during the period as well. 243 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:14,520 If two or four three territories are not performing, 244 00:18:14,620 --> 00:18:18,260 then we have to go with the plan B  or to the other parts as well 245 00:18:18,380 --> 00:18:22,960 so it's very important to continuously monitor your resource, monitor your people, 246 00:18:23,100 --> 00:18:25,540 either they are productive like I have already said 247 00:18:25,540 --> 00:18:30,160 their calls are productive  because they are doing in countries like Pakistan 248 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:35,600 especially where anti-infectives are dominating as far as the therapeutic class is concerned 249 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,420 the rep is normally doing 13 to 14 calls per day so 250 00:18:39,420 --> 00:18:42,360 at the end of the month it ends up around 251 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,880 300, 350 calls for a single rep so 252 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:50,240 and in every call they are promoting two to three products 253 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:59,020 so if you count on the details it's end up around  thousand details from one Medical Rep in a month 254 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:04,560 so normally we have field size from 50 to 150,  so you can count how many details 255 00:19:04,620 --> 00:19:10,140 or how many messages that we are giving of particular recipes in a month 256 00:19:10,140 --> 00:19:14,080 so it's very important to get 257 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:18,560 the benefit from those we are.... from commercial Excellence perspective we are not 258 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:24,800 not only focusing on the capacity part, that deployment, and the call rate 259 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:29,980 and you can say the frequency of the Medical Rep, but it's also part of commercial excellence 260 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:35,020 we are working on their qualitative part, we are working for their training and development 261 00:19:35,020 --> 00:19:37,020 either the rep is enough capable to 262 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,940 deliver the right message in the HCP chamber 263 00:19:40,940 --> 00:19:44,800 to convert those messages into the productivity area. 264 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,320 so it's Commercial Excellence  who is doing end to end 265 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,080 from the capacity and the capability building point of view both 266 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:55,720 from both perspectives and 267 00:19:55,800 --> 00:20:00,460 not only the Reps as I already mentioned, the manager role is very important 268 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,780 who is coaching four or five or five or six reps in their area 269 00:20:04,780 --> 00:20:09,320 So Commercial Excellence plays a very important role 270 00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:15,920 that how manager is spending time with their reps and where he is spending his time 271 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:20,240 so this is the area where we have to focus 272 00:20:20,360 --> 00:20:24,300 and apart from sales, Sales Force Effectiveness, because I told you 273 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:29,560 that SFE has evolved from last 15 years from you can say the basic 274 00:20:29,780 --> 00:20:33,520 customer relationship management to \that the commercial Excellence level 275 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:37,920 now we are also focusing on the marketing part 276 00:20:38,260 --> 00:20:47,240 how we are building our marketing plans, how we are creating content to make it more interactive 277 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:53,200 with the HCP and how we can get rather than having the same slides from time to time 278 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:58,820 where the HCP cannot find anything, any value addition for them  279 00:20:58,820 --> 00:21:02,340 so they are not giving the attention to the sales rep 280 00:21:02,500 --> 00:21:08,040 so it's very important to keep all the areas from marketing and sales perspective 281 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:14,020 under the umbrella of commercial excellence and make all efforts in the productive outcomes 282 00:21:14,260 --> 00:21:18,140 so this is what's important and, like you said, yeah 283 00:21:18,140 --> 00:21:25,580 AI will very, you can say, will be very helpful for us 284 00:21:25,700 --> 00:21:32,480 it's important to initiate AI initiatives in the Commercial Excellence perspective 285 00:21:32,580 --> 00:21:37,240 because previously it's the role of analyst, either is a BI analyst, SFE analyst 286 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:41,340 who are supporting business to giving them insights 287 00:21:41,340 --> 00:21:45,560 but with AI now we have machine and addition to 288 00:21:45,660 --> 00:21:52,740 a person who can also support business to have  ,you can say, the insights and information about 289 00:21:52,820 --> 00:21:59,680 the business, where they can make known decisions rather than having decision on the gut feeling 290 00:21:59,780 --> 00:22:05,040 and their previous experience that  now team can do a data driven decision 291 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:13,040 easily with these tools and AI can also support us to expand our horizon from one year 292 00:22:13,140 --> 00:22:18,160 to 5, to 10 years based on the previous data, based on the IQVIA or Market Insight 293 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:25,800 how that particular molecule is behaving, how the disease in the respective country is prevailing, 294 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:33,720 progressing so AI can also help us to define our strategic plans for next 5 to 10 years of a company. 295 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:38,680 That's a good insight about the forecasting. 296 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:42,420 Mr. Amer, would you like to add anything about forecasting? 297 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,220 I think AI is a very strong tool, very strong. 298 00:22:45,220 --> 00:22:49,520 It is indeed. It is. 299 00:22:49,620 --> 00:22:55,680 It is not going to be only in forecasting, I mean  the SFE Journey starts from the marketing team 300 00:22:55,680 --> 00:23:00,000 actually not from the sales team, it starts from the marketing team, 301 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,500 understanding the product very well 302 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:10,320 and segmenting their market correctly, and defining the criteria for the customers or the HCPs in that case. 303 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:17,520 When the marketing defines what  criteria should be used in order to segment 304 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:24,140 the HCPs and decide who is going to prescribe  and who is a late adopter 305 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,740 or who's not going to be prescribing right now. 306 00:23:27,740 --> 00:23:31,800 These things and the abundance of data by time 307 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,060 is going to be done using AI algorithms 308 00:23:35,060 --> 00:23:39,740 so it will select for the Medical Rep who are the doctors 309 00:23:39,860 --> 00:23:45,980 to be targeted in the beginning, and who are the doctors to follow after while you are launching the product 310 00:23:46,420 --> 00:23:53,580 More than that, and within the scope of SFE as well 311 00:23:53,580 --> 00:23:56,540 and within the scope of forecasting, 312 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:04,320 analysis like what Sajjad exactly said, instead of being done by a person it's going to be done 313 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:13,380 already using BI algorithms that are capable  of changing the Medical Rep and the territories forecast 314 00:24:14,100 --> 00:24:17,640 based on the investment that the company wants to put in 315 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:19,640 because at the end of the day 316 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:26,760 of the products for example, take as an example the chronic diseases products, 317 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,780 producst that are treating hypertension or diabetes, 318 00:24:30,780 --> 00:24:36,120 these are products that require less promotional effort 319 00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:39,660 than products that are treating acute medications. 320 00:24:39,660 --> 00:24:44,260 And why is that? Because there is a lot of repeat prescriptions going on. 321 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:52,100 Once you put an HCP, and he gets to know that one medication 322 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:57,400 is effective for hypertension, he starts to give it to more patients 323 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,500 and these patients start to repeat their prescriptions across the year. 324 00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:06,080 So it's one prescription will result in much more sales 325 00:25:06,220 --> 00:25:09,640 than when you are prescribing  a pain medication for example 326 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,540 or an anti-infective 327 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:18,680 In that case, one prescription equals one patient or one box. 328 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:26,660 While you are talking about chronic medications, you are talking about one prescription equal multiple boxes. 329 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:38,960 What was that? haha 330 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,360 Good to hear different music yeah ha ha 331 00:25:41,360 --> 00:25:43,360 Yeah yeah! 332 00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:48,260 In that respect you will see that the deployment of medical reps 333 00:25:48,340 --> 00:25:53,620 will be a lot dependent on the type of product 334 00:25:53,780 --> 00:25:58,260 and the segment as well if you are talking about 335 00:25:58,260 --> 00:26:04,500 the private market where a hospital is purchasing and dispensing the remedication 336 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:10,200 based on prescription only so  they're making small purchases every month 337 00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:16,060 that's different from having to go into a tender in order to 338 00:26:16,060 --> 00:26:21,060 sell your product or your medication into a tender setting 339 00:26:21,140 --> 00:26:27,960 you have to work on the deal for too long but you get uh sizable sales out of your work. 340 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,600 So again, how many medical reps should we put in the account? 341 00:26:32,860 --> 00:26:35,440 Is it the same like the private market? or not? 342 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:42,380 All these will be very easy to analyze using AI algorithms later on 343 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:49,640 to decide the deployment of the Medical Rep, the correct frequency of visits per Medical Rep 344 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:56,480 because, like what I've just said, every single call has a cost 345 00:26:57,580 --> 00:27:01,700 so shifting the calls from one doctor to the other 346 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:08,940 might be a correct strategy to increase  your productivity in that particular territory. 347 00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:15,400 Guys, we have a question from the audience  so I'm going to post it here. 348 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:21,860 It says: can you explain what are you including in hyperpersonalization? 349 00:27:20,540 --> 00:27:24,880 What are the critical elements of it? 350 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:30,180 because we have a comment, there's an answer in a comment but we can bring it up 351 00:27:30,180 --> 00:27:32,780 It says hyper personalization is the key 352 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,360 end psychographic approach is the game changer 353 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:42,980 Do you have any inputs to share or to answer the question that was asked? 354 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:49,960 Yeah, I appreciate if he can further explain on this what he wants to say. 355 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:55,200 Amer, if you have anything to respond. 356 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,960 Well, what I can say is that hyper personalization 357 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:04,380 is not yet in the healthcare industry sales, 358 00:28:04,380 --> 00:28:11,300 I think what he is talking about has been implemented already in other industries. 359 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:18,260 especially the retail Industries that gather a lot of insights about the customer. 360 00:28:18,460 --> 00:28:25,720 who is or in the FMCG are trying to talk to patients 361 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:30,740 through hyper segmentation and you can see 362 00:28:30,740 --> 00:28:34,920 that many products who are in the FMCG real 363 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:42,160 are having the same product in 12 different packs  to cater to 12 different segments of customers 364 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:46,260 because they understand through the amount of data available to them 365 00:28:46,260 --> 00:28:51,500 what each of these microsegments wants and needs 366 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,980 if that's what he's talking about, then I think it's not yet 367 00:28:57,140 --> 00:29:02,680 in the healthcare industry yet,  at least not in the prescription medicines 368 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:07,620 to a smaller extent, yeah 369 00:29:07,620 --> 00:29:14,160 Yeah, just to add on that, in Pharma obviously we don't have that hyper-personalization 370 00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:19,400 We have only insights about the HCP, their preferences, their prescription preferences 371 00:29:19,660 --> 00:29:22,960 you can say, his buying motive,  about his buying motives 372 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,660 we are gathering some information in terms of 373 00:29:26,780 --> 00:29:29,660 you can say the profiling  and prospecting perspective 374 00:29:29,660 --> 00:29:34,260 but obviously we cannot, we don't have such data that Amer has already told. 375 00:29:34,340 --> 00:29:36,660 One thing that I want to mention here 376 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:41,780 apart from the profiling and the prospecting part, especially in the digital era 377 00:29:41,980 --> 00:29:46,380 where we have witnessed a lot of digitalization during the covid time 378 00:29:46,380 --> 00:29:50,440 because covid, what I think that covid moved, 379 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:56,000 or shrink the time of the digitalization, what the Pharma is moving in a slower pace but 380 00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:02,320 during the covid, they have sped up  the digital things very well and very fast 381 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:08,560 but during that time what I have witnessed that a lot of  a bombardment, you can say the digital bombardment 382 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:14,340 from Pharma companies for the HCPs, where everybody is going with webinars 383 00:30:14,500 --> 00:30:16,940 WhatsApp messages, emails... 384 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,080 There's a lot of bombardment to the HCP. 385 00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:24,260 I think for that part like we are doing, you can say, 386 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,040 the profiling and the prospecting part from the HCP. 387 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:33,560 I think for the digitalization and the Omni Channel, especially in the Omni Channel era or engagement 388 00:30:33,780 --> 00:30:38,160 we also do the digital segmentation of the HCP as well 389 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:43,000 what is the preference or the preferred channel for the HCP 390 00:30:43,100 --> 00:30:47,300 that he or she want to interact with the Pharma companies 391 00:30:47,460 --> 00:30:53,600 either they want to have emails, promotion, product emails from the company 392 00:30:53,820 --> 00:31:00,220 or he or she want to attend the webinars, or they prefer the WhatsApp channel 393 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:08,080 like this or there are some HCP specific web portals  where they can find the medical information as well 394 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:14,480 because we cannot go with every channel,  every medium to every HCP 395 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:18,000 So I think that can be also helpful. 396 00:31:18,500 --> 00:31:22,600 Thank you for that. We have another question. 397 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,200 Come on, the guys are waking up, I say the attendees. 398 00:31:26,340 --> 00:31:31,720 The question is: Nowadays pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan 399 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:39,220 is usually the link... It's usually linked KPIs with incentives calculation. 400 00:31:39,460 --> 00:31:44,340 Do you think is a demotivating factor among the fieldforce 401 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:49,500 and is it create a bad impact in the sales target achievement? 402 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,160 Yeah I want to, I want to answer on this. 403 00:31:54,340 --> 00:32:00,200 I think it's a blessing for the sales team, not demotivating factor 404 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:05,560 as far as I'm concerned because company is incentivizing on your efforts as well 405 00:32:05,740 --> 00:32:10,600 rather than on the on the results that is the sales because 406 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:17,180 if you are in a growing territory, companies incentivizing your efforts that you are doing 407 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:21,660 such number of calls, you are doing number of details in their territory 408 00:32:21,860 --> 00:32:25,620 rather than waiting for your sales achievement, 409 00:32:25,620 --> 00:32:30,780 they are supporting you in by incentivizing you KPIs 410 00:32:30,940 --> 00:32:38,280 Yes, it's very important what are the KPIs, to whom they are focusing on 411 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,700 and how they are linking with the incentive part 412 00:32:42,700 --> 00:32:47,100 but I think the qualitative part always support sales rep 413 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:53,740 to focus on their qualitative area, their effort area rather than having only the sales number 414 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:59,500 So it will be a you can say demotivating factor, but as I have already said that 415 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:06,660 it's basically the job of Commercial Excellence team how we are incentivizing our team, what are the KPIs, 416 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,800 what are the key features of the incentive policy 417 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,220 so it's the job of the Commercial Excellence, 418 00:33:14,340 --> 00:33:18,000 with the coordination of the commercial leads  or the commercial team 419 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:27,440 Great. I think we had discussed that, prior or on some other call or another event 420 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:30,120 that the importance of the KPIs because 421 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,200 some people thought that they were very restrictive or they were like controlling 422 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:40,140 I think the word "control" was used, but as you said before it's an incentive. 423 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,940 It's important in order to help you get you to the results correct. 424 00:33:45,060 --> 00:33:48,660 or then you're not getting it as it should. 425 00:33:49,460 --> 00:33:50,880 Yeah. 426 00:33:51,660 --> 00:33:55,900 I think you as you, it's same like that. 427 00:33:55,900 --> 00:34:01,340 It's paying for your efforts, yeah. 428 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:06,280 because it's not that simple if you go in a territory where we have the X amount of number 429 00:34:06,420 --> 00:34:09,420 it's currently producing and you want to go on the why 430 00:34:09,420 --> 00:34:15,140 and for example if you want to achieve a target of $10,000 from a territory 431 00:34:15,260 --> 00:34:19,800 or $5,000 from a territory and currently  territory is on the $1,000 432 00:34:19,940 --> 00:34:26,860 so it's not an easy that you can turn around the sales from $1,000 to $5,000 in a month or in a quarter 433 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:33,260 It will take time but during that time, company is taking care of yourself and supporting you 434 00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:39,520 through incentive, because in countries like Pakistan the major part of the 435 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:45,280 the compensation of the sales rep is driven from the incentive, in most organizations 436 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,720 Ok. Yeah, yeah. Amer, do you have anything to add? 437 00:34:51,720 --> 00:34:54,380 Yeah, my question would be about you know 438 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:59,140 we had a question about hyper personalization  and thank you for explaining it 439 00:34:59,380 --> 00:35:05,540 I have an interesting topic here though, so we are talking about, you were saying about 440 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:10,340 that with a certain medicine you want to approach certain KOLs 441 00:35:10,340 --> 00:35:14,680 and then after you start engaging with the KOLs and 442 00:35:14,740 --> 00:35:20,240 getting market access for the..., well after you get the market access for the drug, 443 00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:28,400 you have some sort of hyper personalization right? which you well develop with omnichannel 444 00:35:28,580 --> 00:35:37,280 Now, like for that particular doctor you know like he or she gets that particular sequence 445 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:42,680 and then of course you have certain branded messages, you have the next best action 446 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:47,020 which tells you what to do next with that particular KOL 447 00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,700 My question would be this: 448 00:35:49,700 --> 00:35:56,700 How do you see the work of field sales reps in the future, 449 00:35:56,860 --> 00:36:00,840 where, maybe you've heard maybe not, there are certain researches where they say that 450 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:04,620 there's going to be hyper personalized medicine in the future 451 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,540 where basically patients  will get a hyper personalized medicine 452 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:12,380 where no medicine will be alike and there's going to be like very small forms of medicine 453 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,220 which goes to just a very small amount of the population. 454 00:36:16,220 --> 00:36:21,440 How would you approach? Well like just let's brainstorm here. 455 00:36:21,540 --> 00:36:25,280 How do you see the future of the field rep in this situation? 456 00:36:25,420 --> 00:36:30,940 Well, with the evolution of the precision medicine  457 00:36:30,940 --> 00:36:35,020 you will see that the job of the Medical Rep will radically change. 458 00:36:35,460 --> 00:36:37,660 Let me try to explain.  459 00:36:37,660 --> 00:36:45,180 Historically speaking the HCPs had very little resources 460 00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:50,160 to get information and they were relying  a lot on pharmaceutical companies and Healthcare companies 461 00:36:50,220 --> 00:36:55,200 to provide them with the updated  medical information through the medical reps 462 00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:59,680 and the number of medical reps were very few at that time, ok? 463 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:05,100 By time, the marketing, the medications became 464 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,360 the biggest activities being done by the pharmaceutical companies 465 00:37:08,460 --> 00:37:14,760 and the number of reps have increased dramatically and their competition for the timing, 466 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,320 for the time of the doctor has increased dramatically as well 467 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:24,600 and with that evolution came the evolution of information as well 468 00:37:24,740 --> 00:37:29,080 so the doctors started to  get a bombardment of information 469 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:36,780 as Sajjad said, through... Instead of relying on a medical journal that they used to receive in mail once a month, 470 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:46,200 they are seeing that instantly via the Internet and they can look for any information they want 471 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:51,540 and get the updates the time  that they are happening everywhere around the world. 472 00:37:51,620 --> 00:37:59,060 So instead of traveling from Argentina to Europe to attend the European Society of Cardiology meeting for example, 473 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:04,880 they can attend a virtual session while they are in their offices, okay? 474 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:13,600 So the next Evolution that is going to come will see the medical reps less and less needed 475 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,800 to give information to the doctors, okay? 476 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:20,720 However with personalized medicine 477 00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:25,080 the proper guidance for the doctors 478 00:38:25,300 --> 00:38:29,040 from the pharmaceutical companies will evolve again 479 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:33,820 but not in the form of what we call now the medical representative 480 00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:37,640 but they are going to be members of the medical team 481 00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:42,040 that we now call the Medical Science Liaisons, MSLs  482 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:46,800 and the MSLs are going to increase in number 483 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:51,460 at the expense of the traditional Medical Rep 484 00:38:51,460 --> 00:38:55,180 because the MSL by definition 485 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,900 is not a job that is bound to a sales target. 486 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:05,480 It's a job which has the objective of explaining the science behind the medicines 487 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:10,680 and explaining the science  behind a certain medical category, okay? 488 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:14,940 And we have seen that evolve in some companies already. 489 00:39:14,940 --> 00:39:19,200 Starting to rely more on medical science liaisons 490 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:24,040 than on traditional medical representatives, okay? 491 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:29,420 So I think that is going to be the future 492 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:34,800 when more and more precision medicines are there and it is going to... 493 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:40,620 be a very high productivity function or a high productivity rep 494 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:46,780 the value generated by one MSL is going to be enormous 495 00:39:46,900 --> 00:39:54,440 because of course the prices of precision medicine is going to be much higher than traditional medicines. 496 00:39:55,140 --> 00:39:59,280 W have a comment regarding this. I'm sorry to interrupt. 497 00:39:59,380 --> 00:40:03,680 He's saying: Thank you, Stefan, for bringing this up. 498 00:40:03,780 --> 00:40:09,800 As per my opinion due to precision medicine in the future,  MSL will be on the top of the chain 499 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:15,640 and as Mr Amer is saying, evolution in Pharma industry  will reduce the role of Medical Rep 500 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:23,040 but MSL will be more in action and he is really enjoying this talk show. 501 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:29,560 So we're here to please. We love to hear that you're liking this talk show! 502 00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:34,180 We don't have Muhammad Sajjad's answer on this. 503 00:40:34,260 --> 00:40:38,140 I'm really curious about Mr Sajjad's comment. 504 00:40:38,140 --> 00:40:41,700 Yeah I think Amer covered the thing 505 00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:44,840 Then Kashif already commented on that 506 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:48,520 because Pharma company has started working on the medical part 507 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:52,040 and they have now big Medical Teams with the support of MSLs. 508 00:40:52,180 --> 00:40:56,360 Previously we had only one or two resources in the head office 509 00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:01,200 who is you can say the working on the content part of the product in the medical department 510 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:07,320 but with the time, you can get functionality or 511 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,400 the impact of medical is going to increase in these days 512 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:17,780 because doctors see lot of value addition if a MSL is coming in their chamber 513 00:41:17,780 --> 00:41:21,780 because pharma reps are more focused on the product part 514 00:41:21,900 --> 00:41:29,420 but whenever the MSL goes in the chamber, basically he's always there to give him some new information 515 00:41:29,500 --> 00:41:35,380 about the disease, the coming technologies or the coming R&Ds, 516 00:41:35,580 --> 00:41:39,620 so doctors are enjoying to interact with the MSL 517 00:41:39,620 --> 00:41:44,580 And as Amer said that a lot of companies have started 518 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:49,420 especially companies who are in the chronic segment, who are already doing this 519 00:41:49,620 --> 00:41:57,140 because there are lots of scientific discussions, doing lot of scientific discussion with those companies reps 520 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:04,060 yeah in acute right now you can see the MSLs are not that much active 521 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:09,600 but by the time now MSLs are you can say, increasing in these areas 522 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,960 so sooner it will, you can say, that it will be 523 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:22,040 the equal impact or maybe the bigger impact from  rather than sales team so things will move in that way. 524 00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:30,920 For this I think, just to add on that,  the training part and the capability part 525 00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,620 is also very import from rep perspective as well 526 00:42:34,620 --> 00:42:38,560 because normally we are focusing on the commercial part of the product, 527 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:44,840 reps are focusing more  on the you can say the feature and parts of 528 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:51,480 or features of the product, but they also should be equipped with the medical information as well 529 00:42:51,620 --> 00:42:57,120 So here the capability building part comes to play an important role. 530 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,840 I'll comment here... Oh okay, we have a question. 531 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,260 So I'll just comment really briefly 532 00:43:07,260 --> 00:43:12,540 My comment is this: So I have a friend who works as an MSL in the United States 533 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:18,680 and well basically how he meets doctors is  like he tries to influence them you know 534 00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:24,500 give them information, studies, researches, so you know they are most informed 535 00:43:24,500 --> 00:43:27,340 and very often this information, you know 536 00:43:27,420 --> 00:43:29,860 doctors don't have time to interact with you. 537 00:43:29,860 --> 00:43:32,740 And he had the problem that he gives this information 538 00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:37,380 and he doesn't know whether the doctor has interacted or not with the information 539 00:43:37,740 --> 00:43:42,960 Now, you know because we are talking about AI here 540 00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:46,520 there is a tool that he's been testing and has been quite successful. 541 00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:48,520 It's called Humata, 542 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:55,480 where you can basically upload, it can be saved locally on your server or on your computer 543 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:57,400 so no data goes outside. 544 00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:01,340 I know that Pharma is really crazy about AI 545 00:44:01,540 --> 00:44:07,680 that information can be leaked outside and so on, so this tool is very safe 546 00:44:07,820 --> 00:44:12,460 So you upload your information, your PDFs, specifically PDFs and documents into Humata 547 00:44:12,460 --> 00:44:15,960 and you have can have a conversation with the data. 548 00:44:16,100 --> 00:44:21,440 You can ask certain questions that you have  so you don't need to scheme over hundreds 549 00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:26,000 and thousands of pages of research for a particular drug or or medicine. 550 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,280 I'm going to post the tool in the comments. 551 00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:35,520 This is one way how everyone  including the audience can use AI 552 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,520 to improve their Commercial Excellence, their productivity. 553 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:44,560 Now let's hear the next question, Juliana. 554 00:44:44,740 --> 00:44:48,880 Yes, definitely. The next question says  555 00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:52,820 what would you say are the key factors for 556 00:44:53,040 --> 00:45:00,880 successful AI adoption within pharma commercial operation? Who wants to tackle that? 557 00:45:01,220 --> 00:45:07,740 Yeah, I can start. I think the quality of data quality,  of input data is very important 558 00:45:07,860 --> 00:45:11,060 is very important if you want to predict something in the future 559 00:45:11,060 --> 00:45:16,200 because normally we don't... in the most of the organization 560 00:45:16,300 --> 00:45:20,180 we are not focusing on the quality of the data  it's very important because AI will ultimately 561 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:26,240 populate, you can say, the run on the logarithm  on the available data because 562 00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:32,480 it's very important to enter the right data, right trends 563 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:36,780 and you can say the one of... there are a lot of factors 564 00:45:36,940 --> 00:45:44,160 for example, during covid, we see a  raise in the acute medicine which are 565 00:45:44,260 --> 00:45:52,180 which were used on the  treatment of the corona or covid 566 00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:58,820 So it's one off. You cannot predict, you cannot forecast future sales on the basis of... 567 00:45:58,940 --> 00:46:02,080 on the sales that we have driven during the covid period 568 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:05,540 so it's very important that quality of data and 569 00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:10,700 and one of the trends that we have witnessed previously  570 00:46:10,700 --> 00:46:17,060 so it may impact that area. Apart from that, 571 00:46:17,220 --> 00:46:25,280 the biggest you can say what I saw a lot of there I saw a lot of change in that as well 572 00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:33,100 but mindset is very important because first you have to believe on those tools 573 00:46:33,380 --> 00:46:39,060 then you will go on that part because if you want to drive data 574 00:46:39,060 --> 00:46:42,800 as per your own feelings on experience 575 00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:49,420 or how you want to see data that how you want results like that 576 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:59,200 if you are forecasting or you are, what I can say,  that you are focusing on your previous experiences 577 00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:05,360 So I think first you have to change your mindset as well, you have to challenge yourself as well 578 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:13,320 it's not that every time experience went wrong but every person should challenge their feelings 579 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:16,480 their good feelings with the data as well  580 00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:17,680 Ok. 581 00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,480 So these two things. Amer? 582 00:47:21,420 --> 00:47:30,140 Well, yes. That's very well said. Definitely the first thing to think about when you're deploying an AI solution 583 00:47:30,240 --> 00:47:34,660 is the data set that you have, what kind of data are you going to use 584 00:47:34,740 --> 00:47:37,880 in order to utilize this AI algorithm 585 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:42,380 and second, or the second most important part is 586 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:47,940 which function or which area of business are you going to deploy this 587 00:47:48,420 --> 00:47:53,440 and to me one of the most important areas that you can deploy 588 00:47:53,580 --> 00:47:57,760 is the CLM, the Close Loop Marketing  589 00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:00,620 because close loop marketing as a concept 590 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:08,400 came into the health care industry I think  more than 15 years ago and still to date 591 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:11,460 I think it's underutilized. 592 00:48:11,460 --> 00:48:17,900 but using the AI in order  to analyze all the data that are coming 593 00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:26,840 from the CRM and are coming from the marketing tools that the sales team is using 594 00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:34,520 can greatly enhance how CLM is being adopted and utilized  and can drive a change in the recommendations 595 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:42,440 or in the action plans of the Medical Rep created by the CLM based on their behavior 596 00:48:42,620 --> 00:48:49,520 in the usage of the CLM tools as well as the results that are being generated 597 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:57,920 so if you are using the AI correctly in that area and correlating the usage of the CLM 598 00:48:58,100 --> 00:49:00,400 with the activity that is being done 599 00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:05,940 with the Target Customer because all this data is already internal data that's available 600 00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:12,520 with the pharma company once it deploys the correct CRM tool 601 00:49:12,660 --> 00:49:16,100 such as Platforce by the way and... 602 00:49:16,580 --> 00:49:21,800 in that respect if you can correlate that as well with IQvia data 603 00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:31,120 or any data that's available from the market, individualizing the sales results and the market share results 604 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:39,920 then definitely you can come up with an actionable,  action plan or an actionable items 605 00:49:40,220 --> 00:49:46,700 that you deploy within your CLM tools and your CRM to create a proper action 606 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:51,740 to change the deployment of the sales force as Sajjad earlier suggested  607 00:49:51,740 --> 00:49:56,160 or to change even the promotional line 608 00:49:57,620 --> 00:50:02,880 because if you're in somewhere where you have to promote two or three different products 609 00:50:03,020 --> 00:50:06,840 maybe one of them is not compatible with the other two 610 00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:13,200 or the target customers are dramatically different  so you will find out what is being done 611 00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:20,160 by the Medical Rep and how the customer is  responding to the medical rep's actions. 612 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,760 Great, Stef. Do you have...? 613 00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:30,700 Sure, in fact we have a... 614 00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:39,280 We have a colleague who wants to ask a question. He just posted it to me in a personal chat. 615 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:44,180 Okay, so Andrej wants to ask a question so  616 00:50:44,460 --> 00:50:52,480 How can small organizations compete with larger players who have more resources to invest in AI driven Commercial Excellence initiatives? 617 00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:56,360 How can smaller organizations compete with larger players 618 00:50:56,480 --> 00:51:02,080 who have more resources to invest  into AI driven Commercial Excellence initiatives? 619 00:51:05,860 --> 00:51:08,440 I think that's an excellent question. 620 00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:11,780 I think so too! 621 00:51:12,700 --> 00:51:18,900 One thing is prioritization, okay? 622 00:51:18,900 --> 00:51:24,100 When you are looking for a tool, an AI tool to deploy in your company 623 00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:30,800 you have to be, I would say, I don't want to say "careful" but you have to do your due diligence 624 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:38,180 in order to find out which area of business  are you are going to deploy the AI into 625 00:51:38,540 --> 00:51:41,580 that it's going to be the most productive for you  626 00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:48,420 because you'll not be able to deploy it in everything, like what major companies are doing  627 00:51:48,420 --> 00:51:51,480 I'll just give you an example. 628 00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:55,540 I was talking to a friend and I found out that 629 00:51:55,540 --> 00:52:00,940 his company has added co-pilot, Microsoft co-pilot 630 00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:04,560 to all the employees, okay? 631 00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:12,000 and thinking that they are employing over 12,000 people 632 00:52:12,620 --> 00:52:16,860 this is a huge budget to have in their contract co-pilot for all 633 00:52:16,860 --> 00:52:20,080 and are they going to use it? how many? 634 00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:25,260 Or what's the percentage of people who are going to use co-pilot in their day-to-day job? 635 00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:29,660 So if you are a smaller company 636 00:52:29,660 --> 00:52:36,380 then you will use the AI tool in the areas that are going to benefit from it most. 637 00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:41,740 For example I would go directly to the sales and marketing teams 638 00:52:41,940 --> 00:52:47,820 and the Medical Teams, the customer facing teams, who are writing emails every day 639 00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:54,380 trying to personalize these emails and trying to come up with a better language 640 00:52:54,480 --> 00:53:01,400 to write in their emails, so in that respect yes I can utilize AI as a regenerative tool 641 00:53:01,860 --> 00:53:08,380 I would deploy it as well, like I said in the beginning, in CRM and CLM 642 00:53:08,620 --> 00:53:13,780 in order to make sure that I am trying to optimize my sales calls 643 00:53:13,780 --> 00:53:20,160 to the ultimate way possible or to optimize it 644 00:53:20,720 --> 00:53:26,440 in a way to make sure that I am getting the maximum productivity from each call that is being made. 645 00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:32,060 So the prioritization here is key. 646 00:53:32,060 --> 00:53:39,700 The second thing is the selection of the right AI tool that you want. 647 00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:45,400 Maybe you don't need co-pilot, maybe you just need something else 648 00:53:45,580 --> 00:53:50,520 that is more suitable to what you want to do, so you have to think of your objective 649 00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:54,320 Why are you looking for an AI tool? 650 00:53:54,320 --> 00:54:00,360 Are you going to use it for example most of the territories that you're having? 651 00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:06,160 Are you promoting a niche product? So you need to really optimize the way 652 00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:10,320 that the medical representative is moving from one consultant to the other 653 00:54:10,420 --> 00:54:16,120 so your Medical Rep because in each location there is one or two consultants maximum 654 00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:22,800 so if he has to do 10 visits a day, then he will need to visit five different hospitals so 655 00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:31,300 the geographical planning of his action plan becomes really really important 656 00:54:32,660 --> 00:54:34,820 You see? So... 657 00:54:35,060 --> 00:54:44,720 The prioritization still is key, Try to match the tools with the resources that you have 658 00:54:44,900 --> 00:54:51,120 to your objectives and your strategy to get to the best possible outcome. 659 00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,740 Ok, let's ask Mr Sajjad. Muhammad? 660 00:54:56,760 --> 00:55:01,240 Yeah, I agree with that. Prioritization is very important. 661 00:55:01,460 --> 00:55:08,520 The selection of the tool is very also very important, considering first you have to evaluate your situation 662 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:15,640 of that company area where we they are working,  the segment they are working, like Amer said, 663 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,860 we have in the speciality company or the company with limited resources have 664 00:55:20,060 --> 00:55:24,080 their customers in multiple geographical locations 665 00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:28,260 so they have to plan their working very efficiently 666 00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:31,580 in order to maximize their productivity and 667 00:55:31,580 --> 00:55:35,360 you can say in those companies, the role of commercial excellence 668 00:55:35,460 --> 00:55:40,200 and the role of AI is far important  than the other bigger companies 669 00:55:40,340 --> 00:55:44,080 it's not that bigger company don't want Commercial Excellence  670 00:55:44,220 --> 00:55:51,500 but with the limited resources you cannot afford to waste a single resource 671 00:55:51,600 --> 00:56:00,480 because you are very limited resources and if you start, you can say, fail to get the right response 672 00:56:00,580 --> 00:56:05,060 or right results from that resources, so it will be difficult by the time. 673 00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:09,020 So prioritization and the selection of the tool is very important. 674 00:56:09,020 --> 00:56:12,340 And the area where you want to deploy that tool 675 00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:17,620 and what you want to get from that tool is also very important.  676 00:56:17,620 --> 00:56:23,160 So it's more important to utilize your resources very efficiently. 677 00:56:23,260 --> 00:56:27,980 deploy your resources or your efforts to the high potential areas 678 00:56:28,140 --> 00:56:30,680 where you can get maximum productivity. 679 00:56:30,680 --> 00:56:34,080 It's not that high potential areas are based on revenue 680 00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:40,360 but it's also the customer behaviors of that area or that speciality 681 00:56:40,460 --> 00:56:45,840 because if a certain HCPs don't want to change their prescription behaviors  682 00:56:45,840 --> 00:56:49,480 so it's not the high potential for you 683 00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:57,220 because they will not change their prescription behavior even if you are visiting them twice a week 684 00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:03,360 So you have to focus on those areas where you can get the early birds 685 00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:10,980 so to maximize your resources, your sales  which also give you more resources for the future as well. 686 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:17,340 Because you can earn or you can generate your future resources 687 00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:19,140 from your current sales. 688 00:57:20,120 --> 00:57:24,680 Great, thank you. We have three minutes away. 689 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:29,500 So to end up I want to bring a comment 690 00:57:29,560 --> 00:57:33,000 that I think fits to the future inputs 691 00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:38,560 It says: Can you discuss any innovative AI-driven commercial strategies 692 00:57:38,660 --> 00:57:42,580 that are on the horizon for the pharmaceutical industry? 693 00:57:42,860 --> 00:57:44,900 As a closeup haha 694 00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:53,660 Yeah I think everybody is working on that because most of the companies 695 00:57:53,880 --> 00:58:00,400 are now focusing on the long long term strategies rather than the short-term strategy 696 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:06,980 because for the sustainable performance you need such AI tools 697 00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:13,760 who can predict your future, you can say the future not only the forecast  698 00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:16,600 which are the segments, where you have to go, 699 00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:20,040 considering the market dynamics, how market is changing 700 00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,820 what are the segments that are growing, 701 00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:27,020 what are the segments where we have room to enter 702 00:58:27,020 --> 00:58:32,400 and that segment should be some correlation with your existing 703 00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:38,440 you can say the expertise or  you can also decide to go in the new segments 704 00:58:38,580 --> 00:58:46,220 but obviously that requires additional resources  and some working from zero 705 00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:51,700 so it depends on your strategy or your future aspiration as well 706 00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:57,840 because sometime your existing segment or existing therapeutic area 707 00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:03,540 is more saturated where you cannot get the growth for the future 708 00:59:03,720 --> 00:59:11,080 so it's very important where companies should focus for the long-term planning 709 00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:18,740 not only the for sales is also the segment, their future launches, because market data 710 00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:25,720 will give you ample information and you can say the insights about the your future focus 711 00:59:25,860 --> 00:59:33,640 so you can use that area, and one very important area  where sometimes we are getting challenges 712 00:59:33,680 --> 00:59:41,420 is the supply chain area, that also pharma companies streamline their supply chain process 713 00:59:41,560 --> 00:59:47,880 concerning the past behavior because  sometimes some product is you can say performing 714 00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:55,800 radically better than the previous one, and sometimes with the addition of new molecules 715 00:59:55,800 --> 01:00:01,340 your Star product can get drastically down 716 01:00:01,340 --> 01:00:05,900 because a new molecule can change the prescription behavior of the HCP 717 01:00:06,140 --> 01:00:11,420 So using AI in your supply chain, the whole supply chain process, 718 01:00:11,580 --> 01:00:18,380 from raw material to finish product  can also support you to plan efficiently 719 01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:26,920 in your supply chain not to maintain inventory but also have the cost-effective solutions 720 01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:31,880 or cost-effective things which can also help you to improve your bottom line as well 721 01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:35,980 your productive, profitability as well. So that can be used. 722 01:00:35,980 --> 01:00:40,760 Thank you. Mohamed, do you have something to add? 723 01:00:41,220 --> 01:00:49,480 Well, I cannot think of much to say after what Sajjad has said, but maybe 724 01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:57,480 maybe an area like market access can utilize  a lot of AI algorithms there 725 01:00:57,540 --> 01:01:06,080 to define the segments, how to deal with insurance, what is the correct level of discounting 726 01:01:06,160 --> 01:01:11,200 or other market access strategies that are going to be utilized 727 01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:15,780 relying on analysis of historical data as well as 728 01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:23,840 the market trends and, what is known already, of the new medications 729 01:01:23,940 --> 01:01:30,660 that are going to come in the market and the generics that exist in the market 730 01:01:30,900 --> 01:01:38,620 so when these are analyzed correctly, then it can drive a successful market access decision 731 01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:45,760 regarding dealing with insurance reimbursement  or even bidding in certain tenders and winning them. 732 01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,100 Great, thank you. 733 01:01:49,100 --> 01:01:52,680 You can call it "smart tendering" or "smart market access" 734 01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:57,080 I call it "smart tendering". It's very important. 735 01:01:57,240 --> 01:02:02,660 You need to copyright that name before someone else steals it haha 736 01:02:03,220 --> 01:02:10,000 Ok, thank you so much for being part of this incredible panel and this talk show. 737 01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:15,200 I cannot appreciate enough that you took the time from your agendas. 738 01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:23,280 I want to thank our attendees as always for being so kind and for taking the time, for allowing us to do this. 739 01:02:23,600 --> 01:02:28,960 We love to be on camera with Stefan, so this gives us an opportunity. 740 01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:36,100 And please if you have any questions or any comments for our attendees, 741 01:02:36,200 --> 01:02:40,720 for our speakers, sorry, attendees, you can always 742 01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:46,360 leave them on the comment section or you can look for them on LinkedIn. 743 01:02:46,460 --> 01:02:49,940 I highly suggest that, and get their inputs. 744 01:02:50,180 --> 01:02:56,100 For me and for us, this it for today. I want to remind everyone that 745 01:02:56,180 --> 01:02:59,880 please fill out the form so we know  what you want to hear about next. 746 01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:07,760 And thank you all. Have a great rest of your Thursday! And have a great Friday and a great weekend! 747 01:03:07,920 --> 01:03:12,540 So I will see you all for our next Pharma Insights. Bye, everyone!  748 01:03:12,540 --> 01:03:13,900 Bye, bye! 749 01:03:13,900 --> 01:03:15,900 Thank you! Thank you, everybody!