Pharma and Medtech companies: 72% Hope to Launch New Business Models with Digital Solutions

63% seek competitive advantage by adding digital features to products
or offering new digital solutions

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Digital know-how is decisive for business. A recent survey* conducted by
the global strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners
found that 72 percent of managers in the pharmaceutical and medtech
industries believe digital solutions are the basis for new sustainable
business models. For 63 percent of respondents, the main goal is to gain
significant competitive advantages by adding digital features to their
products or offering additional digital solutions. Only 41 percent want
to market their digital solutions separately, and the same number said
they hope these solutions will generate new sources of income or provide
an opportunity to work with regional and local payers.

“This shows that the healthcare industry expects a lot from
digitalization,” says Dr. Gerald Schnell, Senior Partner and Life
Sciences expert at Simon-Kucher. “However, in order to see long-term and
sustainable results, companies must first clearly define overarching
strategic goals for their entire portfolio as well as for individual
solutions.”

The rise of connected care, remote monitoring as well as integrated
Health IT solutions

Pharmaceutical and medtech companies place particular emphasis on
connected care solutions, solutions that transmit patient data between
different service providers to enable better integrated care. In
addition, they focus on solutions that improve patient monitoring to
ensure irregularities are addressed quickly. Approximately 55 percent of
respondents stated they are focusing on these two areas. Integrated
health IT solutions that, for example, make processes and data exchange
more efficient within the healthcare provide area ranked third with 45
percent.

“Our project experience in the healthcare sector underlines these
findings,” says Jan Bordon, Senior Director at Simon-Kucher. “Better
data availability and data transparency are key drivers for developing
and using new digital solutions in the most effective way. However,
there is often still a need for advice on fundamental issues, such as
defining the overall vision and strategy for digital solutions or
designing the optimal direct or indirect monetization strategy. Many
companies invest without thinking about how these digital solutions will
fit into their overall portfolio and what potential these solutions have
for patients, service providers, and payers.”

Close cooperation for long-term success

Demonstrating economic savings plays an important role in the complex
healthcare system with its various players. Nearly two thirds (65
percent) of respondents stated that one of the main success factors in
commercializing digital solutions lies in generating cost savings. For
58 percent, identifying and actively cooperating with innovative payers
with strong digital agendas are key to ensuring the successful launch of
new digital solutions, while 54 percent value closer cooperation with
national, regional, and local payers to jointly generate “real-world
evidence”.

“These three topics are closely interlinked,” says Jan Bordon. “They are
among the most important success factors for pharmaceutical and medtech
companies in the field of digital solutions. Within the current market
access structures, companies need to ‘search’ for the relevant payers to
engage into a cooperation. Most payers are facing cost pressure,
generating cost savings is therefore an important aspect to convince
them to partner and to create real world evidence.”

*About the survey: The short survey “Digital Health” was
conducted by Simon-Kucher in the fourth quarter of 2018 as part of
several webinars. More than 30 executives from the global pharmaceutical
and medtech industries were surveyed.

Simon-Kucher & Partners, Strategy & Marketing Consultants:
Simon-Kucher
& Partners is a global consulting firm with around 1,300 professionals
in 38 offices worldwide focusing on TopLine Power^®.
Founded in 1985, the company has more than 30 years of experience
providing strategy and marketing consulting and is regarded as the
world’s leading pricing advisor.

Contacts

Douglas Jensen (Public Relations)
Tel.: 617-231-4556
Email: [email protected]
www.simon-kucher.com