Hal Walsh currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of SymmetryRx, LLC.
As CEO, Hal provides vision, strategy, leadership, and resources to build web-based solutions to increase the reach of pharmaceutical manufacturers to healthcare providers and their patients.

Hal Walsh, Brand Insights Contributor, CEO of SymmetryRx, LLC

According to IQVIA, new prescriptions for chronic therapies are at 80% of the pre-Covid-19 normal, only recovering with the start of 2021. We are further informed by these statistics:

IQVIA: Approximately 10% of visits to prescribers are telehealth visits.

SymmetryRx: 39% of telemedicine patients are appropriate to receive drug samples.

Accenture: Pharma reps experienced a low of 35% in-person prescriber meetings during the pandemic.

Datamonitor: 30% of patients only fill their prescription when they get a drug sample, regardless of age, income, or gender.



Drug sampling is a key driver for familiarizing prescribers with drugs, beginning patient trials and starting patient adherence. Pharma manufacturers have traditionally relied on field representatives to drive the distribution of drug samples to prescribers. Though this tactic is very successful, there has been a shift in prescriber willingness or ability to meet with field reps.



Pharma reps provide critical services to prescribers, including:

Education on proper use, risks and benefits of medications.

Access to patient resources (educational & financial support).

The pharma representative’s efforts, supported by brand marketing programs, create demand and interest in the brand. Prescribers who use drug samples in their practice of medicine rely on a consistent supply of samples to serve their patients.

The problem is one of reach. Decreased prescriber reach by pharma reps and the increase in patient telemedicine encounters is reducing patient access to drug samples.

SymmetryRx’s prescriber self-serve SampleCenter™ eSample® request platform allows Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA)-compliant sample requests for ship-to-practice and direct-ship-to-patient from the manufacturer’s authorized distributor of record (ADR). The 4th-generation SampleCenter™ offers critical features that enable health systems and large group practices to easily manage sample requests in a PDMA-compliant, fully digital user experience that decreases practice inventory outages and inventory waste at the practice level. Of high importance, SampleCenter™ enables telemedicine patient access to drug samples. Additionally, practices that do not maintain sample inventory can serve all patients through the SampleCenter™ direct-ship-to-patient capability.




SampleCenter™ extends the reach of pharma reps and creates the opportunity to reach more prescribers and to provide the complete service that those prescribers require. Our sample demand generation and patient medication adherence programs help our pharma clients increase new and total prescriptions and expand the success of medication treatment programs.

We integrate our service with your ADR for seamless execution in about eight-weeks. All request allocations, processing, and validation operate through data integrations with your ADR and allocation system.

SymmetryRx has operated drug sample request websites at brand and enterprise levels for 31 manufacturers while simultaneously giving prescribers sample access through SampleCenter™, the only true industry utility, one-stop sample request site designed for prescribers. The result for our clients is that we are consistently the second largest source for drug sample requests after the pharma’s direct or contracted sales force.

In an ever-changing healthcare landscape, pharma manufacturers need effective solutions to capture drug sample demand from prescribers in the way prescribers prefer. By partnering with SymmetryRx, pharma manufacturers can dramatically extend their reach within health systems, large groups, and directly to patients. SymmetryRx offers profitable access to prescribers in every decile and by all practice ownership types.


https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/the-use-of-medicines-in-the-us

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/life-sciences/coronavirus-changing-pharma-hcp-engagement

Datamonitor, Introduction to eSampling Solutions, Published 2006



Articles

The NRx Crisis

Pharma manufacturers have traditionally relied on field representatives to drive the distribution of drug samples to prescribers. Though this tactic is very successful, there has been a shift in prescriber willingness or ability to meet with field reps. Between seeing patients and meeting modern documentation requirements, doctors are becoming less accessible to pharma reps.

Covid-19 exacerbates these accessibility issues even more. Prescriber engagement strategies and relationship management tools are among the investments made by pharma to address this crisis. Field sales teams, while a productive part of the marketing strategy, now operate with reduced numbers while focusing on accessible high prescribers. Non-personal access points such as brand and enterprise websites have replaced in-person pharma rep visits for many prescribers. This strategy offers pharma companies a convenient and economically efficient solution for reaching prescribers.

Going to many different websites is a non-starter for prescribers, however, and it shows in the numbers. SymmetryRx has operated drug sample request websites at brand and enterprise levels for many manufacturers while simultaneously giving prescribers sample request access through SampleCenterTM, the only scalable multi-tenant, one-stop sample request site designed for prescribers. SampleCenterTM is a force multiplier and has demonstrated delivering 3x to 28x more sample requests than pharma websites alone. The business rules to achieve the 28x multiplier are well understood by SymmetryRx.

SampleCenterTM is positioned as an “indirect extension of the pharma rep’s reach,” allowing pharma field reps the ability to focus more on their highest skillset as a brand education and patient resource expert. It allows for the natural handoff of managing the sample request transactions for tens of thousands of eligible prescribers to SymmetryRx’s hybrid personal/non-personal sample eligibility promotion model.

This model delivers value in balancing prescriber needs for pharma representative educational services and day-to-day sample request transaction management. It offers quantitative value in the terms you use to make business decisions (i.e., cost reduction, ROI, NPV, IRR, BE, expense-to-revenue).

#1 Why would we partner with SymmetryRx if we already have a web solution?

 Whether using an internal portal or one custom-made by SymmetryRx, pharma manufacturers may partner with us to help generate greater utilization and further reach. SampleCenterTM is currently integrated into seven key prescriber-facing online destinations, making pharma organizations and their brands exponentially more visible and accessible.

Furthermore, the SymmetryRx marketing team focuses on driving targeted prescribers to these sites and presenting only relevant samples and resource offers in alignment with the business requirements of pharma partners. Pharma companies have complete control over sample availability through all communication channels.

Additionally, SymmetryRx is constantly developing its platform to include the latest technology like its most recent releases: 21 CFR 11 compliant authenticated eSignature and HIPAA-compliant Direct-Ship-to-Patient drug sample request capabilities. SymmetryRx has unmatched experience seamlessly integrating to allocation systems and fulfillment operations.

#2 We don’t want SampleCenterTM to interfere with the work of our field representatives.

 For pharma companies, field reps are still the leading driver for drug sample delivery and prescriber education. Field reps rely on the management of the sample transaction to ensure the overall success of the prescriber’s engagement with the pharma company. SampleCenterTM extends the reach of pharma reps and creates the opportunity to serve more prescribers the way they want to be served.