Getting more value from pharmacy retail chains: Pharmacy Retail Chains in Europe and US
Traditionally pharmacies have been seen by pharma companies as independent outlet at the end of the sales chain without paying them too much attention when planning their Go-to-Market plans.
Nowadays, pharmacists are playing much more important role than before in the healthcare transformation by influencing patients in the generic buying decision, in disease management and including patient wellness programs amongst others activities.
In addition, big retail pharmacy chains are increasing exponentially and with them their relevance in this industry, not only in US market where big pharmacy retail chains are well known like CVS, Wallmart, Cardinal, Costco etc. but also in Europe even if sometimes masked in form of an affiliation as there are some country-specific regulations like Spain where the legislation restricts the number of pharmacies that the same owner can have.
Currently over half of the Europe’s pharmacies are grouped in a retail chain or affiliated to chains (also called “virtual” chains). Experts state that in next few years, the number of affiliations to “virtual” chains in Europe will exponentially increase.
As an overview of current situation in Europe:
| Country | % of Pharmacies in Virtual Chains |
| Denmark | 95.0 |
| Germany | 85.0 |
| Netherlands | 78.3 |
| Slovakia | 71.0 |
| France | 68.0 |
| Finland | 59.4 |
| Switzerland | 47.0 |
| Bulgaria | 40.0 |
| Czech | 36.0 |
| Average 20 European countries | 35.7 |
| UK | 35.0 |
| Hungary | 30.0 |
| Poland | 23.0 |
| Italy | 20.0 |
| Sweden | 12.3 |
| Belgium | 12.0 |
| Norway | 10.2 |
| Spain | 3.3 |
Source: James Dudley Management OTC Distribution in Europe – the 2016 edition
This transformation requires a new way of collaboration between pharma companies and pharmacists. As consequence pharma companies have started to integrate pharmacies in their vertical value chain and give them more relevance than before by include them in their Go-to-Market plans. But how to effectively manage this?
SAP solution extensions by Vistex helps companies to manage their Go-to-Market programs with a best in class solution for group memberships that allows pharma companies to maintain control over complex business relationships between contract organizations and affiliated clients and their Go-to-Market programs.
Vistex Solutions maintain an exact copy of your customer’s membership list and automatically match it to your customer database utilizing internal and external cross-references. Data collected from your customers’ files, third-party data providers, or EDI transactions are loaded through applications that are integrated with customer master data. Because you establish filters, policies, and participation rules to control contract participation, Vistex Solutions automatically determine contract or member eligibility, updating contracts – all without manual intervention
In last Gartner report in revenue management in Pharma and Biotech, Vistex was selected as the most complete solution natively embedded in SAP and highlighted his ability to deploy in large-scale and high-transactions environments with real-time view of financials. Vistex offers end-to-end solutions for all aspects of contract and revenue management. The solution set provides a clear view of profitability into the most complex Go-to-Market programs.
Do you want to know more? Contact SAP and ask for SAP Solution extensions by Vistex