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Why
Are Refill Prescriptions More Important Than Initial Prescriptions
to My Bottom Line?
 I
continue to hear product managers say
that the main focus of their marketing strategy is to get
physicians to write the initial prescriptions.
But product managers who only look at initial prescription
sales are selling their product short! In fact, taking steps
to persuade patients to refill their prescriptions can increase
total prescription sales by 50%.
When you apply the patient
compliance research statistics to the typical DTC ad, the
loss in sales is clear.
Of every 100 people who
read a DTC ad for a chronic medication, 7 will receive a prescription.
BUT only 1 person will still be taking it by the 4th refill!
Assuming that all 7 patients should have stayed on the medication,
total potential sales for the initial prescription and 4 refills
would have been 35. In reality, 6 people dropped out by the
time of the 4th refill. Only 16 prescriptions were actually
filled. That means you have lost more than 50% of your potential
sales by the time of the 4th refill ... because the person
was not educated and motivated along the way.
This is why it is clear
that a product manager can significantly increase sales by
looking beyond the initial prescription. The effect is even
more profound for a chronic medication ... because the goal
has to be to keep patient on the drug for more than 4 refills.
Why
Isn't My Patient Education Program Working?
 I
received a call last week from a product manager who was concerned
that he had spent so much money on patient compliance programs
but they hadn't improved his ROI.
He was fed up because he had spent a lot of his budget to
develop a series of pamphlets to support his DTC ad and for
health professionals to use in their practice. The materials
looked "attractive" and he had a tremendous printing bill
... but the content had not increased patient compliance ...
and his ROI was flat...
He felt he had absolutely wasted his
money and even worse lost the launch opportunity to establish
brand loyalty for his product. Despite this, he still believes
that patient education should increase his sales, but that
he just had a "poor" program. He does not want to spend any
more money on design and printing until he can figure out
how to make these materials work. He asked, "How can I increase
patient compliance so my sales go up?"
I really felt sorry for him because
he had tried to go in the right direction. The dollars he
spent on patient education should have significantly increased
his sales.
Product managers like the one who called
me are losing 10-20% of all initial prescription sales because
people decide not to fill them. In addition, at least 50%
of the people who do get the prescription filled do not take
it correctly. This means the drug cannot be maximally effective.
MDs do not see the full clinical response...and may decide
to switch the patient to another medication. Even worse, about
30% of patients (and frequently more) do not get their refills.
They quit because they decide the side effects are too annoying,
the drug is not working, or they forget to get their refill.
With a chronic medication, the impact
of these patient decisions on a product's ROI can be staggering.
That is why it's critical to develop programs that will help
prevent patient drop-out and increase retention. A patient
education program must be integrated into every place during
the drug therapy where a patient makes a decision whether
or not to take the drug.
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