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Key opinion control: KOL relationship management should be an essential component of any pharma brand team.

Article Excerpt
MARKETING EFFECTIVELY TO physicians in today's pharmaceutical industry is more important than ever. No longer can companies rely solely on DTC and sales force efforts to increase drug and therapeutics revenue.

Peer-to-peer programs have emerged as pharma's strategic means to narrow the knowledge gap between existing product data and physician awareness of this information. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the physician community are relied upon by their peers to provide a realistic assessment of a drug's effectiveness. Because of this, scientific discussions initiated by medical thought leaders stand out, especially in a highly regulated and media-saturated environment.

With pharma looking for efficient and effective ways to manage their relationships with leading physicians, KOL relationship management has now emerged as its own business discipline. Companies that create and maintain meaningful and complex relationships with KOLs on a mass scale will enjoy increased market share and revenues.

Because of federal and PhRMA guidelines, relationships with these physicians are heavily regulated. So it's not just managing the KOL relationships that pharma companies are struggling with, but also integrating this management across functional groups, from medical to marketing, and through the lifecycle of a drug,...