Main Subject - Business

After many conversations during my last visit to the Bay Area and several networking events back in NYC, I noticed a strange and unwelcome similarity in the remarks and ripostes of leaders of traditional and d

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

igital media companies. Each in their own ways, they commented profusely about revenue streams, commerce, and traffic, all very reasonable concerns.

But missing was the prominence of the CUSTOMER.
; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in
ong>

You remember the customer, don’t you? Not long ago, the business bookshelves were littered with advice about meeting the needs of the customer, developing a 360 degree view of the customer, and ensuring
lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

delightful customer experience. And the interactive domain was supposed to be the perfect environment for giving the customer what s/he wanted whenever s/he wanted it, while being able to measure and therefor
here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe
optimize the delivery.

But recently the customer has been taking a back seat and that’s not good for the media, especially content companies, over the long haul.

The latest generation of digital content pro
d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro
iders seems to have been swept away by the gold rush fever that the shifts in ad spending have generated. Very few companies that I spoke with have any sort of customer lifetime value models factored
ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc
nto their media and marketing decision making process. And therefore their retention programs are rudimentary at best. They are chasing traffic because that means ad dollars in the short term.

Deceptive keywo
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
d purchases and tricky web ads seem to be the order of the day. (I thought that sort of thing went away with the death of direct mail sweepstakes.) Many are trying to develop ways to add page views in order to
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
increase ad inventory. No, they are not adding quality content and functionality in order to enrich the customer experience. They are simply restructuring their flows so that a customer might have to endure an
and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ
extra page in order to accomplish the same task. And therefore to see one more page of ads.

Not good for the customer, that’s for sure. C’mon, folks, can’t you try a little harder and accomplish both goals –
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi
etter experience, more ad revenue?

The traditional publishers are not faring any better but it is for a different set of reasons. They all had very well-structured businesses - some by product, some by channe
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a
, some by affinity. And they developed ways to integrate their activities so that the units didn’t get in each other’s way.

Then came the web and mobile … and they have tried very hard to adapt. There were gr
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
nd utterances like “We will integrate the internet into everything we do.” Sounded nice but few did what they said and it was the wrong approach anyway. Most went down one of two paths – creating a separate in
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
ernet/digital unit or bolting some net resources onto each business unit.

WRONG!

The digital space is not an additional channel or an add-on. It is a superset of everything that came before
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
nd much more. It overarches the world as we knew it. It’s not one extra way for the customer to interact with content. It’s a place where the customer can and wants to interact with all forms of content at the
t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
same time, as their needs dictate. This is not about having a nice house and deciding to add on a family room, it’s about sitting down with an architect and renovating and reconstructing the entire home.

Trad
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
tional content companies have been busy pressing the old structure to keep up and have been reluctant to rework the entire blueprint. That’s one reason why they are struggling.

There are a few who se
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
m to be getting it if they can integrate things quickly – Hachette recently bought Jumpstart Automotive Media and About.com snagged ConsumerSearch.com
.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
/strong>. But then I see CBS making a big announcement about their “CBS Connections” unit, which will allow advertisers to buy across CBS media properties, as if it’s a breakthrough, and I hav
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
to scratch my head.

Neither the old nor the new media entrants have figured it out yet and so the battle for loyal customers is still very much up for grabs. That is, if anyone still cares about the customer

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Main Subject - Has Anyone Seen The Customer Lately?

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