Life sciences companies face the monumental task of adjusting their sales strategies to meet the demands of today’s increasingly restrictive commercial landscape. While teams can adjust their internal strategies, few outside solutions exist to aid these efforts. However, there are some external resources working to introduce non-traditional commercial opportunities into the life sciences arena. RIMEDIO, which aptly brands itself “enlightened healthcare collaboration,” is one such non-traditional solution to sales team challenges. RIMEDIO is an innovative business-to-business platform aiming to bring together all life science industry’s commercial stakeholders. One source has described the service as “eBay meets Amazon sitting on LinkedIn.” This digital meta-community will bring together doctors, payors, manufacturers and patient advocates into a single social platform integrated seamlessly with a Learning Management System, CRM/SFA, CLM iPad offline detailing tool, CLM remote web eDetailing tool, eCommerce tools, and reporting dashboard. Within this community, these individuals will engage in any number of transactions, bidding on services, products, and permission-based marketing initiatives. RIMEDIO founder, Richie Bavasso, explained, “In the real world, payors, patients, manufacturers, doctors talk to each other daily. Think about your own personal health: You go to the doctor, your go to the pharmacist, you interact with the payor to get reimbursed, and you may given or seek materials from the manufacturer about the therapy prescribed. You’re interacting! Why can’t the same activity be enabled in a social environment compliant to the requisite regulatory policies, eg, HIPAA et al?” Mindful of these patterns, RIMEDIO’s e-commerce solution will thrive on stakeholder interaction. One of the first innovative aspects of the RIMEDIO platform comes from physician users. RIMEDIO gives doctors a method to reach directly to multiple life science companies from one touchpoint. Within the platform, physicians can post their need for educational material for patients, product samples or even clinical trial enrollment opportunities. These postings benefit not only the doctors, but also the companies using the site. Bavasso explained, “You have push and pull opportunities. Also, the industry spends gazillions of dollars on analytics to try and uncover prescriber needs, wants and behaviors without the doctors’ permission. With RIMEDIO, you’ll know in real-time what doctors’ needs are and you have the option to fulfill it or not.”
RIMEDO also aims to introduce another progressive idea into the life sciences commercial space: the freelance sales agent. A number of pharma reps have lost their permanent positions with companies and are actively seeking the same kind of work. These representatives often still have rich connections within the medical community, as well as clinical and institutional knowledge useful in sales conversations. RIMEDIO offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for these representatives to capitalize on their skills and influence and for companies looking for short-term sales engagement and more highly targeted sales strategies. It is a win win. These agents are free to represent multiple companies. All required training to enable the agent is provided through RIMEDIO. In RIMEDIO, agents live and die on their reputations. Companies and doctors rate reps’ performances. As reps earn higher performance rates and better track records, they can ask for higher service payments and build networks of multiple company connections. Currently, RIMEDIO has no peer. The concept is unlike any other on the market. One interviewed pharmaceutical executive did express some concerns, however. Contracting these one-time reps could be a compliance threat for companies. A company executive explained that she saw no way to mitigate the risk of leaked information to competitors or to ensure the rep would not stray off-label during discussions. RIMEDIO, however, doesn’t share these concerns. First off, each freelance agent must pass a comprehensive background check, have a demonstrated background in medical/pharmaceutical sales, and pass a 13-hour RIMEDIO-based training addressing compliance and generally accepted sales practices. Additional life science company-sponsored training on policies, disease state and products can also be made mandatory. Secondly, all transactions are transparent and visible to the contracting manufacturer. Aberrant behavior will surface very quickly. Bavasso commented, “In essence, every agent will have had to successfully pass the same level of training (or higher) as any employed representative. In addition, market forces will prevail. Reputation is the ultimate determining factor as to whether an agent will be successful in RIMEDIO. Violation of RIMEDIO and/or life science company policies are grounds for membership termination. “There will always be an opportunity cost for engaging and not engaging,” Bavasso adds, “Companies must ask themselves, is it more strategically important to own and control your own field force and be limited to the results therein or have access to the best reps with the best relationships to customers you wish to target? The outsourcing horse left the barn decades ago. We are long past proving that outsourced talent can deliver similar results for less money. And that quality can be enforced.” RIMEDIO is looking for investment partners to bring the platform global. For more information and an investors brief, please contact Mr. Bavasso at bavasso@rimedio.com.
RIMEDO also aims to introduce another progressive idea into the life sciences commercial space: the freelance sales agent. A number of pharma reps have lost their permanent positions with companies and are actively seeking the same kind of work. These representatives often still have rich connections within the medical community, as well as clinical and institutional knowledge useful in sales conversations. RIMEDIO offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for these representatives to capitalize on their skills and influence and for companies looking for short-term sales engagement and more highly targeted sales strategies. It is a win win. These agents are free to represent multiple companies. All required training to enable the agent is provided through RIMEDIO. In RIMEDIO, agents live and die on their reputations. Companies and doctors rate reps’ performances. As reps earn higher performance rates and better track records, they can ask for higher service payments and build networks of multiple company connections. Currently, RIMEDIO has no peer. The concept is unlike any other on the market. One interviewed pharmaceutical executive did express some concerns, however. Contracting these one-time reps could be a compliance threat for companies. A company executive explained that she saw no way to mitigate the risk of leaked information to competitors or to ensure the rep would not stray off-label during discussions. RIMEDIO, however, doesn’t share these concerns. First off, each freelance agent must pass a comprehensive background check, have a demonstrated background in medical/pharmaceutical sales, and pass a 13-hour RIMEDIO-based training addressing compliance and generally accepted sales practices. Additional life science company-sponsored training on policies, disease state and products can also be made mandatory. Secondly, all transactions are transparent and visible to the contracting manufacturer. Aberrant behavior will surface very quickly. Bavasso commented, “In essence, every agent will have had to successfully pass the same level of training (or higher) as any employed representative. In addition, market forces will prevail. Reputation is the ultimate determining factor as to whether an agent will be successful in RIMEDIO. Violation of RIMEDIO and/or life science company policies are grounds for membership termination. “There will always be an opportunity cost for engaging and not engaging,” Bavasso adds, “Companies must ask themselves, is it more strategically important to own and control your own field force and be limited to the results therein or have access to the best reps with the best relationships to customers you wish to target? The outsourcing horse left the barn decades ago. We are long past proving that outsourced talent can deliver similar results for less money. And that quality can be enforced.” RIMEDIO is looking for investment partners to bring the platform global. For more information and an investors brief, please contact Mr. Bavasso at bavasso@rimedio.com.
Subscribe to MENA Opportunities and get more...
