December, 2012    SMM-092

Excellence in market access strategy: A research-based definition and diagnostic tool

Market access strategy is a pressing and important issue for almost all pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Yet the content of market access strategy is poorly defined and is often confused with process, objective and operational activity. Further, little is known about the differences between strong and weak market access strategies. Based on four in-depth case studies, this article proposes a tested definition of what market access strategy is. It identifies nine factors that characterise the strength of any market access strategy and proposes a graduated scale for those nine factors that enables the objective assessment of the strength of market access strategies prior to execution.