On the lines of the medical apps being used by healthcare professionals and chronic patients to avail information on medicines and doctors’ services, the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies worldwide have started launching Pharma Apps to educate doctors and hospital administrators about new drugs and promote them in the absence of medical representatives who are kept at bay by medical professionals due to the present pandemic crisis.

It is learnt that the new strategy is implemented to market company products through e-promotion activities. Products will be sent to the doctor or the hospital directly by the manufacturers on placing of orders online.

According to reports from various healthcare industry sources, using mobile technology hundreds of multi-national and other pharma majors in India are resorting to digital routes to reach out to physicians and hospitals directly to share information on new products. The Pharma Apps rolled out by manufacturers contain information on new products, their efficacy and side-effects related matters and commission offers to doctors and hospitals. This digital form of marketing strategy is adopted by the companies for boosting their marketing in the wake of inability of sales representatives to visit doctors in clinics and hospitals. Manufacturing companies with various therapeutic segments bring out separate apps on each product and share it with doctors who become their ‘prospective direct clients’ without field staff.

Jiju Malayinkeezhu, a Thiruvananthapuram based medical representative-cum-media worker, said 40 major manufacturing companies have launched their Pharma Apps in Kerala and directly interacting with doctors and hospital administrators, staving off their medical representatives. He said his senior officers in the medical company have collected the contact numbers and email ids of doctors and hospital managers he used to visit, and shared the apps with them. According to him, with this kind of Pharma Apps the manufacturing or marketing firms can directly sell their products without the help of field staff.

Jiju further said once the new digital mode of marketing pharmaceuticals by companies is rolled out everywhere the situation will impact the whole distribution channel and several of the marketing staffs, including medical representatives, and managers of marketing companies, office staffs of C&Fs and super-stockists will lose their jobs. Ultimately, it will affect the business of distributors, wholesalers and the retailers. He said all over India over one lakh medical and sales representatives are working in the field for a livelihood representing various companies.

Reacting to the reports of Pharma Apps in Kerala, N Purushothaman Namputhiri, president of Kerala Drug Manufacturers Association, said so far any of the Kerala drug firms has not yet introduced such an app to attract direct business from hospitals or doctors, but companies from other states might have launched it. He said marketing through mobile technology app is against pharma business ethics.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Sundar, all India president of the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) said e-promotion is not a new mode of marketing in India, it is a strategy prevailing in the market for long. But he added that it would not succeed in India as face-to-face interaction of pharma marketing is foolproof as the representatives will provide information on efficacy and side effects of the medicines to the doctors in person. He said during lockdown period several companies have made attempts to hold zoom meetings with doctors but many of them showed no interest in participating. It makes the sense that doctors are unwilling to support digital marketing of medicines.

“An overnight shift from the conventional marketing system of medicines to digital mode will not be encouraged by the medical community because they want to be convinced of the medicines launched by a company. For this, they will seek direct or in-person communication of facts about the new drug. Doctors will prescribe a new medicine only after getting solid confirmation of all information about the product. Doctors generally do not encourage digital mode of promotion work, but prefer to get information through medical representatives,” Sunder said.