Pharma Manufacturers Need To “Blur” The Rx

Years ago when I was at Ernst & Young as a consultant, several of the partners wrote a book called BLUR.  The concept (that I took away) was that products and services were being combined into offerings.  That one could not stand without the other.  A quick example for me is General Motors with OnStar, but there are numerous examples out there.

In pharmacy, I think this has been the standard around specialty drugs for years.  Manufacturers produce the drugs and sell them to a pharmacy for distribution.  With that, they provide educational materials, adherence programs, or other “services”.

I think going forward that there is going to be increasing need to differentiate even oral solids (traditional small molecule products) that are less expensive and focus on chronic conditions.  Formularies are only going to get more narrow.  Comparative effectiveness is going to push companies to compare overall outcomes of products.  Why not find a way to wrap a similar service strategy around these medications in a more technology driven, scalable manner?

It seems like a great way to show that not only is your product effective when taken, but that patients on your product are more engaged with their condition and more likely to stay adherent.