Quintiles partnership with e-detailing firm leads to US expansion

Whether you call it e-detailing, multichannel marketing or a hybrid sales platform, it is clear that pharma companies want more online connectivity with physicians. Numerous surveys show that physicians will spend more time interacting with a sales rep online (especially outside office hours) versus face time during the working day. To meet this need, Quintiles (Research Triangle Park, NC) is expanding its partnering and co-promotion agreement with Kadrige, a French IT services company, to establish the Kadrige platform physically in the US. Kadrige is opening the first of its US centers at Quintiles’ Parsippany, NJ, regional center, and both companies are promoting use of the Kadrige platform to US clients, having already had successful collaborations with clients in Europe, according to Mike Ackermann, SVP for commercialization at Quintiles.

The Kadrige platform, based on patented technology, employs code that allows the rep to temporarily take over the physician’s computer screen, guiding him (along with voiceover) through a presentation or to address questions that come up. Kadrige emphasizes that this SaaS service does not install any software on the client’s computer—a reservation that many physicians might have to interactive sales presentations. For its part, Quintiles is adding this live detailing to its quiver of sales resources, including a 10,000-strong international sales force, call centers, medical science liaisons and syndicated (shared) sales teams.

Ackermann says that the pressures on delivering ROI via sales rep staffs is unrelenting and pharma clients are looking for more cost-effective solutions. “The key, though, is that the personal relationship between a sales rep and an individual physician is still very important,” he says. “We see technology like Kadrige’s as a way to maximize the value of that relationship.” Several pilots with US clients are in initial planning stages.