APP patient-focus future
March 13, 2014
AT the APP 2014 State of the
Industry Symposium, the focus
was on the future of patients and
opportunities for the industry.
Chaired by Pharmacy Guild
of Australia executive director
David Quilty, the first part of the
symposium included IMS Health
ANZ general manager Chris
Cochran, who provided a general
overview of the pharmacy sector,
including that there had been a
value contraction in 2013 for the
first time ever, with -0.6% growth,
and 2015 was the first year where
a return to some growth was
forecast.
Cochran said there was a real
opportunity for pharmacists to
increase the value proposition in
specialty products, which were
seeing growth.
He also challenged pharmacists
as to whether they had identified
opportunities to connect with
existing or future patients, to
drive a better ongoing patient
relationship, quoting an IMS
analysis of the apps in the Apple
iTunes store in June 2013, which
showed 23,682 apps related to
healthcare, with two thirds related
to consumers.
Australian Self Medication
Industry president Mark Sargent
spoke about the opportunities that
front of shop provided.
Front of shop growth outpaced
prescription, he said, with vitamins,
minerals or herbals the largest
segment of market share at 21%.
S3 was underleveraged due to a
lack of advertising, he said, and a
recent UTS pharmacy barometer
had shown that the majority of
pharmacies now supported a new
form of communication for S3.
ASMI had been working closely
with the Guild and the PSA to build
an alliance, and an aligned view, of
what that could look like, and this
had been achieved, Sargent said.
This involved condition
awareness, the importance of
pharmacists and thirdly, being all
about the brand.
Also speaking was NPSA president
Patrick Davies, who emphasised the
need to make the supply chain in
Australia, which was already one of
the best in the world, even smarter,
more efficient and more secure.
He spoke of Radio Frequency
Identification as a potential solution
for security of medicines, and the
FDA’s introduction in 2013 of a
national traceable framework for
prescription medicines.
The last speaker of the first part
of the symposium was GMiA’s
Mark Crotty who highlighted the
need for policy change to prevent
irreversible damage to the generic
side of medicine.
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