Market researchers IMS Health and GfK Healthcare offer targeted but economical surveys, fact-finding

Fullbore, custom research projects are the usual method for developing marketing and commercialization plans, but—in recognition of the tight finances of biopharma today—two market research leaders have announced new ways to tap into their data pools.

IMS Health (Norwalk, CT) has launched “Ask IMS” with the specific goal of helping early-stage biopharma companies obtain “evidence-based insights to develop and integrate commercial thinking early on and throughout the development process,” says Jim Mahon, GM of product and portfolio management. Clients (currently, US only) can leverage IMS’ syndicated market audits worldwide for information on sales and prescribing trends, primary disease treatment patterns and promotional activities.

At GfK Healthcare (Blue Bell, PA), a quarterly “omnibus” study called Managed Markets Delegates on Demand is available for subscription; it is sourced from a standing panel of 20 pharmacy directors and 10 medical directors from managed-care organizations with over 100,000 member lives. The quarterly report, which allows for individual polling questions to be added, can provide a “sanity check” on topics, such as formulary decisions, that “may not be robust enough for a primary research study but are important to ask,” says a company statement.

“This new offering is extremely timely in today’s market where budgets are being cut around research in general,” says Sue Ramspacher, SVP of GfK Healthcare’s Managed Markets Practice Area. “Overall, clients are being more judicious in the research they are fielding.”