Industry overview
What is shaping pharmaceutical
Pharmaceutical and medical-device companies need evidence from doctors, pharmacists and patients, gathered with verified respondents, strict confidentiality and careful questionnaire design.
- Prescribing behaviour is shaped by evidence, experience and access
- Pharmacies influence brand substitution and adherence
- Patient journeys reveal unmet needs between visits
Client background
A pharmaceutical company, working in Metros and tier-2 cities. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A pharmaceutical company
- Sector
- Pharmaceutical
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Healthcare panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research
Client challenge
The company wanted to understand prescribing patterns and decision drivers for post-heart-attack therapy, to shape its medical education programme.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: understanding how cardiologists choose treatments after a heart attack.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of cardiologists.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 250 cardiologists.
- cardiologists250
Audiences we typically reach in pharmaceutical
Physicians and specialistsPharmacists and chemistsNurses and allied HCPsPatients and caregiversHospital procurement teams
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Metros and tier-2 cities. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Online HCP survey
- 3In-depth interviews
- 4Insight
Verified cardiologists from our healthcare panel completed a survey on treatment choices, guidelines, patient factors and evidence needs. In-depth interviews explored reasoning. Adverse event reporting procedures were agreed with the client before fieldwork.
Healthcare panelQuantitative researchQualitative research
Sampling strategy
- cardiologists
- 250
- Healthcare professionals and patients were screened on specialty, setting or condition, and professionals were verified before taking part.
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- interviews
- 20
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
- Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
Data quality & validation
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Recordings and transcripts for every session
- Re-screening of qualitative recruits
- Verification of healthcare professionals
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
- Journey and decision mapping
Key findings
- Cardiologists in tier-2 cities faced more patient affordability and adherence challenges.
Context of practice shaped decisions as much as clinical evidence.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: context of practice shaped decisions as much as clinical evidence.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: cardiologists in tier-2 cities faced more patient affordability and adherence challenges.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The company refocused its education programme on adherence support and practical guidance for those settings.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how do doctors choose between therapies?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.