Pharmacy System Triggers

Our client needed to understand barriers to dispensing its product in a highly competitive arena. Teasing out the decision points in the processing steps to dispense its product helped to understand competitive pressures and pharmacy behaviors. This is important because a non-AB rated competitor in the class had recently lost patent exclusivity and may receive preferential treatment over other brands.

We conducted qualitative research with 20 retail pharmacists across all store types who were able to take time, uninterrupted, to enter 2 dummy prescriptions for 2 different insurance plans and relay the step-by-step process in moderated interviews.

Pharmacists may be driven to unknowingly substituting products with non-AB rated products that are similar in this class. The suggestion of alternatives within their pharmacy system does influence the dispensing outcome, particularly when patient cost is less for the suggested alternatives. With this information the client was able to develop messaging with pharmacies to alert them to use caution when substituting products based on pharmacy system prompts.