Disease Management Developments In Europe

Pharmaceutical companies should not discount disease management inEurope just because they cannot make money out of it; it may be their only way of maintaining channels to their customers, according to Tony Felton, UK general practitioner and management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand.

Establishing US-style managed care in Europe has proved difficult, he told the PharmEcon 97 meeting in Paris, France, organized by ICBI with Coopers & Lybrand. There are similarities between the US and European health care environments, notably the rising power of payors, the drive towards cost-effective care and the fact that patients are acting more like consumers, but there are also important differences. In European countries, state-funded health services are based on individual access, the medical profession wields great power, there is a lack of health care integration and information and limited access to outcomes data, which is the lifeblood of disease management. However, European governments and payors are applying some managed care principles to the public sector.

All companies, he said, must consider what is the risk of not pursuing a disease management strategy, in terms of: - loss of access to key customers and decision-makers; - loss of ability to shape the environment so products are utilized properly; - loss of access to information on which value propositions are based; - loss of competitive advantage; - marginalization to commodity supplier; - loss of company image; and - loss of contact with the "innovation engine" of change.