Will new companies like ” Diabetics are Us ” take over treatment of common diseases from national healthcare providers ?

At the 2012 Pharma Brand Summit staged by Marcus Evans at the Four Seasons Keminski Hotel in Munich, Professor Brian D. Smith, Adjunct Professor, SDA Bocconi and Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University is scheduled to lay out his vision of the future of the pharma and medtech industries. This is one of the keynote speeches to be delivered at what is a major summit for pharma, medtech and biotech marketing executives aiming to identify likely trends in healthcare, digital marketing and stakeholder engagement .

The basic premise of the speech is that traditional pharma and medtech business models are speciating and many companies risk extinction if they ignore the basic measures required for survival. In much the same way as animals have evolved by adapting to changes in their natural habitat, companies serving the healthcare market are going to have to speciate to cope with fundamental changes in the marketplace. The message is that there is likely to be a plethora of new business models compared with today.

The premise is that there are fundamental changes taking place in two areas that define much of what creates the environment in which these companies have to operate and survive. These are the socio-economic background and developments in technology. Increases in longevity and growth in medical treatments are combining to exert huge pressure on national healthcare budgets so value for money has become the new mantra.

On the technology front, ground breaking new developments such as the advent of digital plasters and implants which can be monitored remotely promise to completely alter the way in which many treatments are administered. Professor Smith foresees a situation in which the value of treatments will be determined by individuals rather than by national or quasi-national health providers like the NHS and Medicaid.

Wealthy individuals and mass markets are likely to start dictating the value of delivered treatments while this value will no longer just be created in the first place by research and development departments of big pharmas and medtech companies.

From now on, new technologies and ways of doing things are likely to allow much more value to be created in operations – manufacturing and distribution – and in tailoring the pharma proposition to patients\’ needs. Personalised medicine and integrating pharma with mobile technologies are examples of that.