Evidence Based Mapping in Pharma

Pharma & Marketing session – introduction

Harald Katzmair (FAS Research)
Evidence Based Mapping in Pharma

Starting back in the late 1950ies with Coleman’s classical study on the diffusion of a new antibiotic drug funded by Pfizer there is a long history of network thinking in the pharmaceutical and health care industry.  Identifying opinion leaders among physicians and building relationships with key people (“KOL” – Key Opinion Leader) to accelerate diffusion and increase acceptance of a drug are key tasks for successful product management. SNA has proven to be a highly effective tool to pinpoint key people and key relationships.

The first part of the talk will start to outline examples of successful application of SNA models in KOL management, pharma marketing and market access over the last 15 years at FAS.research, a social network consultancy located in Vienna and New York.

The second part is dealing with the more fundamental theoretical question about the value of the concept of the “opinion leader” in pharma marketing and marketing in general.

The talk is suggesting a much more differentiated picture about the causes and dynamics of influence.  The limits of standard applications of SNA, focusing on centrality measures are shown. As an alternative to a node centric understanding of SNA the conceptual framework of Evidence Based Mapping®, developed at FAS.research over the last 5 years, will be presented.