The pharmaceutical industry has entered a “turbulent situation”, and the Two-invoice System, 4+7 Volume-based Procurement and drug consistency evaluation have strongly shocked the traditional pharmaceutical marketing model. Relying solely on hospital channels has been unable to support the leading pharmaceutical enterprises, especially for stable growth of multinational enterprises. Starting from 2020, “patient-centered” slogans have finally taken effect in many pharmaceutical companies, and these companies have begun to build a second growth engine, launched a series of “consumer-friendly, patient-centered” strategic measures.
In this trend, which pharmaceutical companies have inherent category advantages to attract customers? Which companies have accumulated courage to rise to the forefront? Which enterprises have raced to close the gap?
Recently, with in-depth study and analysis of medical e-commerce mass data, Illuminera has officially released a consumer mindset list for pharmaceutical brands (e-commerce version). In terms of e-commerce, the benchmark channel for consumer-side in the digital age, the list has analyzed the e-commercialization degree of product line and revealed discrepancy of consumers’ mindset for well-known pharmaceutical companies, which provides strategic support for the consumer-side layout of major pharmaceutical companies.
Interpretation of consumer “medical mindset”
Illuminera has deeply analyzed nearly 500 e-commerce on sale drugs from over 20 leading pharmaceutical companies, tracked patients/drug purchasers’ attention to core products from these well-known companies, compared the associated performance data of the same drug category in the same period, which has shaped this list.
The ranking list of consumer mindset for pharmaceutical brands (e-commerce version)
Viatris tops the list. In addition, “Internet celebrity” drugs such as Viagra, Pimecrolimus Cream performed brilliantly in the crowded dermatitis-eczema drug track, among the top of e-commerce search volume. Furthermore, Viatris also has competitive products in cardio-cerebral-vascular category. Based on the considerable cognitive population size Norvasc has obtained high conversion after being searched on e-commerce platform, which has strongly promoted Viatris’ overall score in the list.
Gilead has narrowly beaten Xian Janssen to take the second place, largely thanks to its star product “Hepatitis B Panacea” TAF, which has been favored by nearly half of hepatobiliary-drug users. Gilead also has a strong presence in treating immunological diseases, as evidenced by the near-monopoly of e-commerce search shares for Genvoya and Truvada.
Xian Janssen’s Sporanox and Sibelium respectively ranked no. 1 in online search in terms of fungal infection and neurological prescription drugs, with the demand group of more than 30,000 people searching for these two drugs on AliHealth in the last quarter. In addition, drugs such as Imodium have strong consumer goods attributes, thus Xian Janssen’s no.3 position is well-deserved.
Pharmaceutical enterprises’ e-commerce “fight”
Based on the above list, combined with the consumer voice performance of various brands of pharmaceutical enterprises in the public domain and their demand on e-commerce platform, Illuminera has sorted three e-commerce echelons of pharmaceutical brands.
Three e-commerce echelons of pharmaceutical brands
(Internal rankings of each echelon is in random order)
The First Echelon: fully taking up andrology medication leading track
Illuminera has found that the success of the first echelon is due to the fact that they all have a highly e-commercialized and qualified track. For example, Viatris owns Viagra, Lilly has Cialis and Organon has Propecia. These three products cover different diseases, but they all belong to andrology drugs, which once again proves that “dignity -related” male prescription drug’s link conversion from public domain to e-commerce ranks first,and can be called as “e-commerce king”.
The Second Echelon: having star drugs in chronic disease category
Competition in second echelon is also quite exciting. Owning competitive products to treat chronic diseases such as “three hypers” contributes a lot for being listed in this echelon. Adalat Retard, Diovan and other drugs are well received by patients; thus, it is reasonable to obtain above-average online conversion. However, not only outstanding drugs in this category have chance to be listed, Sporanox mentioned above, with its excellent performance, pushes Xian Janssen firmly to the front. Merck’s Euthyrox also brings about the same situation.
The Third Echelon: Having “consumerization” drug potential
To explore these “online potential” drug with “consumer attributes” is of great significance to pharmaceutical enterprises. We have found that in the third echelon, there is no lack of outstanding drugs like Flixotide, Clopidogrel, Depakine, Glucophage, Azithromycin, etc. If these specific pharmaceutical companies continue to deepen patient education, they will have the opportunity to further increase the online market share of related products.
In the “Genesis year” of pharmaceutical enterprises consumerization, the current ranking is more determined by innate category consumerization conditions. Enterprises’ online marketing efforts are gradually being shown, so this list can also be regarded as an “original” list. With drug companies finalizing their plans for the next year, effects of different consumer strategies will begin to emerge and mindset list as well as echelons will also change accordingly.
Illuminera will pay close attention to pharmaceutical enterprises’ performance at consumer side and share with industry peers in a timely manner. We will focus on valuable data and insights to explore more opportunities for differentiated layout in the pharmaceutical field, build larger-scale patient education and develop e-commerce brand competition strategies.
Important Notes:
1. The Consumer Mindset List of Pharmaceutical Brands (e-commerce version) covers most of the leading pharmaceutical companies and their prescription drug products displayed on e-commerce platform. The ranking is based on the data of e-commerce displayed drugs and is related to the drug categories put on shelves.
2. Three e-commerce echelons of pharmaceutical brands are based on the relevant data of online prescription drugs and also related to on-shelf drug categories.
For more details about the list and data-driven pharmaceutical e-commerce consulting business, please contact Illuminera growth strategy consulting team GrowthX.
marketing@illuminera.com
