Paul Bulteel, partner at life sciences executive search firm the RSA Group, discusses why the medtech industry needs new talent to help navigate regulatory changes and enable market access for medical devices.
Talent
The last decade has seen unprecedented growth of innovative medical technologies. This has led to the development of a new generation of state-of-the-art medical devices and increased the importance of medtech to patients’ health and the healthcare industry.
Unlimited potential but higher barriers
The potential for further progress in medtech seems almost unlimited, but healthcare payers have become more selective about what they will pay for. In turn, regulatory barriers have been raised. No longer is a CE mark sufficient; more data is needed to prove the value of a device. As a result, medtech companies are working hard to expand their thinking beyond innovation to health economics.
New skills for a new path
These regulatory changes and growing economic pressures have created a demand for new skills to manage the path from R&D to market, and ensure new devices are given commercial market access. Ensuring a positive reimbursement decision is as important as proving safety and efficacy. When a decision in one market can impact so heavily on other markets, it’s important to address the challenges at every level. Experience in local, regional, national and international markets is critical to success and invaluable when translating data generated in one market to the needs of others. If this is not done well, no positive reimbursement ensues and innovative products don’t reach the patient.
Pharma couldn’t supply the talent
Medtech companies have quickly found that the required skills are in short supply. First stop was the pharma industry, which briefly plugged part of the gap. The problems with this approach were two-fold: pharma didn’t have enough market access specialists willing to move and, when they did, they lacked the right skills so frequently went back again. It’s possible to find people with expertise in pricing and health economics, but there aren’t enough with a track record that proves they’ve done it before.
Market access needs to be at the top table
This has led to significant internal debate about the role of market access in medtech. Sitting at the heart of the organisation as the new lynch pin between R&D, clinical, regulatory, sales and marketing, it governs product development strategy from an early stage and drives decision-making about potential asset acquisitions. It also combines health economics, outcomes research, pricing and reimbursement, external affairs, key opinion leader engagement, HTA, advocacy and governmental lobbying.
Larger companies will break down market access into its component parts and have responsibility by product within a Commercial Franchise. SME’s are likely to require people with all these skills but across a portfolio.
Many people now argue that market access professionals should have a seat at the top table, either alongside the Chief Commercial Officer or indeed as the CCO. Conceivably, it’s more important, or at least as important, as the sales and marketing functions.
What skills do this new breed of market access strategists need?
The key talent is to be able to understand the requirements of all the other functions to ensure the right data, for the right submission, at the right time. The goal is to gain the best reimbursement possible by having the ability to influence the entire organisation without diminishing the input of colleagues from the other functions. It is a facilitator position.
Specifically, the expertise to engage with KOLs at the earliest opportunity is vital for getting the backing of the community to advocate for your product. Also, engaging with internal teams from across the organisation is essential. The most successful market access professionals can take information from these internal functions, wed it to that gathered from the external environment, and create comprehensive and impactful value-based dossiers to ensure successful reimbursement.
Externally, it’s vital that market access professionals understand their target audiences and can get across the value proposition.
The future seems bright for the medtech industry, and arguably even brighter for market access professionals who tick all these boxes.