Multi-national pharmaceutical companies use Model N Global Price Management

Four global pharmaceutical giants have gone live with Model N Global Price Management (GPM) in the past three months, as they look to optimise margin performance and reduce risk. This reflects increased momentum in the pharmaceutical industry to adopt revenue management solutions in the face of greater commercial and regulatory pressures.    

The largest firm has implemented the Model N solution to establish effective global pricing strategies across a large portfolio of 100+ products and 10,000 SKUs in more than 120 countries, by ensuring centralised transparency and control over all aspects of pricing.  

The company recognised the need for an enterprise-grade solution to help mitigate the risk in pricing decisions and reduce profit erosion. “With mounting pressures on price such as international referencing now more common at both launch and on an ongoing basis,” says the company’s VP of Global Pharma Pricing, “we can no longer adjust price in one country without thoroughly understanding the potential chain reaction across other countries and its impact on the return for our innovations.”

“Model N’s Global Price Management allows us to spend more time on higher-value activities such as next-generation analytics supporting price decisions and less time on lower-value activities such as error-prone data manipulations or endless international calls and email chains to enforce governance processes.”  

Building momentum

Model N is building on its existing successful relationships with the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, with the implementation of enterprise-wide price management initiatives in a further three leading biopharmaceutical firms, the largest of which operates in more than 200 markets.

In each case, Model N is driving substantial improvements in new product launch sequencing and in the execution of global price cut mitigation strategies, as well as reporting, governance industry governance, and analytics, by replacing existing home grown or spreadsheet-based systems. The cloud-based Model N solutions are cost-effective, versatile and future-proof, allowing pharmaceutical companies to simplify complex approval processes and react swiftly and intelligently to market changes.     

Right solution right time

A series of Model N surveys over the past year have pointed to a growing understanding of the need for change, although there is a still long way to go in the adoption of best practice strategies and solutions to meet industry challenges. For example, 87% of pharmaceutical companies are becoming more proactive in managing pricing but are finding that a lack of data visibility is hampering progress. However, more than a third (34%) are actively addressing the issue and are re-engineering their pricing and revenue management processes with this goal clearly in mind.

Reinforcing this, Mark Hill, senior director, market access EAME at Gilead Sciences, spoke at a recent Model N/Gilead webinar attended by 700 senior industry managers. He emphasised the importance of adopting automated solutions to provide centralised visibility, so that firms can make well-informed pricing decisions in the face of increasing commercial, regulatory and social pressures.

“Industry analyst Gartner has recognised the growing maturity of the sector, confirming revenue management is now more widely understood and closer to mainstream adoption,” says Model N director solutions, James Robinson. “Model N is leading the way here, reflected in our growing success with many leading pharmaceutical companies who recognise our unrivalled sector expertise and proven solutions.   

“Worldwide implementation of the Model N GPM solution in just six months across our four latest customers also offers a powerful example of how we can work with leading pharmaceutical companies to leverage our joint strengths and quickly deliver outstanding value.”

Emphasising the growing importance of revenue management, Robinson will speak about global price management at the forthcoming 4th annual Model N and EPP Life Sciences Forum, from Insight to Action , at Montreux, 4-5 June 2014.

About Model N

Model N is the leader in Revenue Management solutions. Model N helps its customers maximize their revenue and reduce revenue compliance risk by managing every dollar that impacts their top line encompassing contracting, pricing, incentives, and rebates.  Model N leverages its deep industry expertise to support the unique business needs of Life Sciences and Technology companies in more than 50 countries. Global Customers include: Actavis, Allergan, Amgen, Atmel, Boston Scientific, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Linear Technology, Merck, Marvell, Maxim, Micron, Nokia, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, ON Semiconductor, and STMicroelectronics. Learn more at:  http://www.modeln.com. Model N is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MODN.