Go To Market
How a medicine gets from approved to in the patient's hands, and paid for. Five questions, in the order that matters, for the Gulf and Asia.
What it is, and is not
Go to market is everything between a medicine being approved and a patient actually taking it. That is it. Get that far and you have a business. Don't, and you have a registration certificate.
In scope: who pays for it, where it gets bought, who decides which brand, how many of your people are needed and doing what, whether it is actually on the shelf, and what the patient pays at the counter.
Out of scope: whether the drug works, which is clinical. Getting it registered, which is regulatory. Getting it on the list, which is access. What the brand says about itself, which is brand strategy. How it is made and shipped, which is supply.
Five different people, not one customer
The patient
Takes it. In a cash market, also pays for it and decides whether to buy the next pack.
The doctor
Prescribes it. Often has no idea what it costs or whether it is covered.
The pharmacist
Hands it over, and very often picks the brand. Paid on margin, not on your brand.
The payer
Pays for it. A government, an insurer, or the patient themselves.
The buyer
Buys the stock. A tender body, a hospital, a pharmacy chain, a wholesaler.
Five questions, and the order matters
One. Who is my customer? Who chooses, and who buys. Two. Who pays for it? Three. How does it reach the patient? Four. Who do I need in front of them, and how many? Five. What does that cost, and does it pay?
Answer them in this order. Not because it is tidy, but because each one closes off the options for the next. Almost everyone starts at four. You have fifty reps, so the plan gets built for fifty reps, and the first three questions get answered backwards to justify a number you already had. I have done this. It cost a year.
Who really pays in these markets
In Dubai, thirty four per cent of money spent in pharmacies comes straight from the patient. In 2019 it was twenty eight per cent. Insurance is mandatory and the cash share went up. UAE basic cover pays for about AED 1,500 of medicine a year with a thirty per cent co-payment, roughly USD 400, and after that the patient pays everything. Dubai's cheapest plan cut its covered list from about 2,500 products to about 700, mostly generics.
In Indonesia, about 4,300 pharmacies out of nearly 32,000 can fill an insurance prescription. In the Philippines, ninety per cent of medicine sales go through drugstores. In India, more is spent at chemists than at government hospitals, and only fourteen per cent of adults with high blood pressure are on treatment at all.
The framework in full
The definition, the five people, the five questions, the numbers, and a single page that turns who pays into your customer, channel, team and risk.
Run it against your own market
If you cannot name all five people for your product, or your team size came before your channel choice, that is the kind of thing I am useful for.
Tell me what needs to change →