GSK adopts major change in business model
GSK has adopted a major change in its business model, prioritizing transparency over sales, making it the first industry player around the world to implement such a shift.
In particular, GSK changed the way it deals with healthcare professionals even at the risk of affecting its sales.
In the Philippines, the company adopted this approach alongside plans to steadily grow the business, its top official told
“The new model across GSK globally is challenging industry norms that have been existing for decades,” said Lynn Baxter, general manager of GSK Philippines Inc.
Around the globe, for decades now, health groups have criticized pharmaceutical companies for paying doctors to prescribe their products.
In a trailblazing effort, however, GSK moved to change that by transforming the way it provides information to doctors regarding their products.
“The new approach to engagement with healthcare professionals (HCPs) utilizes multiple technology platforms that allow them to access the latest information at their convenience. Additionally, we have modified the way we support education programs and incentivize our sales force as part of our continuing effort to modernize the relationship between HCPs and GSK,” Baxter said.
As a result, the global pharmaceutical firm is now engaging HCPs in a more transparent manner that is focused on the patients.
It no longer provides financial incentives for their sales professionals based on their individual sales targets.
Instead, medical representatives are now incentivized based on their technical knowledge and the quality of service they deliver to HCPs to support improved patient care.
“We have also ended direct payments to HCPs to speak on our behalf and to attend medical conferences. These industry practices are not inappropriate; they play an important role in supporting HCP education through peer-to-peer interaction. However, paying HCPs who can prescribe – or influence prescribing – our medicines and vaccines, can lead others to question whether a conflict of interest exists in our relationship,” the company also said in a separate statement.
“In the past, doctors were being paid to speak on behalf of the company. This could raise questions on conflict of interest so we’ve stopped it,” Baxter said.
Instead, GSK is investing in better ways for HCPs to get rapid answers to questions by providing them access to information whenever they need it, through computers, smart phones and tablets.
If HCPs need fast answers – to make a treatment decision, for example – they may speak with a GSK medical expert through digital media, either during a face-toface meeting with our sales professionals, or at a time convenient to them.