The AmerisourceBergen Insights team recently sat down with one of our manufacturer partners to gain perspective on what it’s like to work with our biopharma services team. We learned just how valuable it is for manufacturers to work with a single partner for integrated commercialization solutions — and what’s missing when they don’t.

Q: What do you find most valuable about working with the AmerisourceBergen manufacturer commercialization strategies (MCS) team?

Working with the AmerisourceBergen team is like having a dedicated quarterback to help you plan and execute your commercialization strategy. That quarterback is able to look at the manufacturer’s commercial needs from a wholistic perspective and bring the appropriate solutions and subject matter experts into the conversation. This is what truly differentiates AmerisourceBergen. Whatever a manufacturer’s need or challenge is — from market access to logistics to HEOR (health economics and outcomes research) and beyond — there is one person you can count on to connect you to the right people immediately.

Q: What is the big “payoff” when you work with one partner to deliver several different commercialization solutions?

Accountability. Just as every division or vertical for a manufacturer ultimately reports up to the same P&L, so do the AmerisourceBergen businesses. This creates a more interdependent culture in which all the businesses hold each other accountable. The accountability culminates in higher service levels, greater efficiencies, and better response times.

Q: When bringing a new product to market, how does the initial conversation with an integrated commercialization services partner like AmerisourceBergen start?

A drug commercialization discussion will typically begin with distribution. A manufacturer will want to know how the product distribution process is going to work. Will they be working with third-party logistics (3PL) or an integrated logistics solution? Who will be handling state licensures and how quickly can that be set up?

Next, it’s important to address whether you’re looking at specialty distribution or one that is going to go through full-line wholesale. What fees will be involved in the commercialization? For a specialty product, what hub services, such as specialty pharmacy, will you have access to? For a hospital product or an oncology product, it’s important to find out which services will help get the therapy to the right patient population.

I’ve been working with AmerisourceBergen long enough that the conversation simply begins with me saying, “here’s the type of product we want to commercialize. Here are our goals.” A manufacturer who is working with AmerisourceBergen for the first time can lean on the MCS team to connect the dots for them and connect them to the right areas of the AmerisourceBergen business.

The nice thing is that whether you are a smaller manufacturer bringing one product to market or a large manufacturer with a portfolio of products, AmerisourceBergen helps you develop the right commercialization strategy to meet the needs of your unique product or product line.

For me, working with AmerisourceBergen is like one-stop shopping. Each of the verticals is on the same email system, and they hold each other accountable. My MCS contact brings the right people to us when we need them.

Q: When there is no point person – no MCS contact – what’s at risk? What is the potential worst-case scenario?

Without a point person to help manage integrated commercialization services, a manufacturer may end up working with multiple MSAs, companies, and vendors. In this scenario, you end up in a situation where everyone is not really on the same sheet of music, which brings significant risk to the entire process.

Communication is fragmented and can completely break down. From a budget standpoint, the most detrimental thing is the lack of a streamlined process. The manufacturer cannot capitalize on where it has business within an organization, leaving money on the table. Another risk is lack of consistency of data. If you are dealing with six specialty pharmacies or six GPOs or three hubs, everyone is reporting data differently. Someone on the manufacturer end must manage all those disparate data feeds, which can be disastrous.

The worst-case scenario is when something crucial falls through the cracks. Maybe one vendor contract expires, and it had to do with getting the patient on a critical therapy in the shortest time period. There are all kinds of important details that can be overlooked in a disjointed process.

Q: What is a key takeaway you would want someone who is not familiar with AmerisourceBergen’s approach to drug commercialization to know?

I would want that person to understand that when it comes to bringing a pharmaceutical therapy to market, AmerisourceBergen touches pretty much anything that has to do with that process. The MCS team ties all the integrated commercialization services together, customizes a solution based on the manufacturer’s and product’s unique needs, and truly simplifies the entire process.

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