Improving distribution penetration and awareness of branded medicines in rural India 

 Learning Launch : 

 Challenge : I work in a pharmaceutical company which sells branded medicines across different   therapeutic areas cross India and many more countries . Healthcare facilities in most countries ,   including India , are better in cities and Tier I towns compared to smaller towns and villages . This is   applicable right from infrastructure of hospitals , diagnostics centres , and availability of branded   medicines at pharmacies . The intent was to provide access to good quality medicines to the patients   in smaller towns and thereby increasing sale of our branded medicines . However , it was believed that   patients in smaller towns prefer to use generic unbranded medicines which are cheaper than branded   medicines . Hence , most of the distribution points and sales force of pharmaceutical companies are   based in cities and tier I towns . 

 Selection : I had some data and a hypothesis which said that people in Tier II and below towns want   good quality medicines for their near and dear ones but branded medicines are not available easily in   these towns . I visited smaller towns in different states and interviewed patients , pharmacists , doctors   in these towns . Since I only had a hypothesis , a plan and an intent , I was not sure about the success of   the plan . The project will require a large field force when operations will be in full scale . That ’s when   I selected learning launch tool to quickly experiment in the market place . 

 Application : I deployed a team of 9 members to start a pilot project in one of the states in India . Each   member had to visit doctors and pharmacists in 24 smaller towns , twice a month . The purpose was to   increase awareness and educate doctors about well - known branded medicines and to make our   branded medicines available at 3 to 4 pharmacies in these towns . The team had to also connect these   pharmacies to large distributors in the tier I towns who would supply medicines to these pharmacies .   Members from various functions like finance , distribution , strategy , human resources also visited   these towns along with the 9 members for insights . Data during the pilot was captured by the 9   member team in specific formats through a mobile application . 

 Insight :   Insights from the data captured in the mobile application and from the conversations with   doctors , patients and pharmacies were very encouraging . I found that there were a set of patients   that had prescription of a doctor that he / she visited in a city and purchased branded medicines which   were available in a pharmacy in the small town . There were also a few doctors in these towns who   prescribed branded medicines to a few patients when they wanted a quick recovery . These doctors   also preferred branded medicines in certain therapies . Such insights helped in selecting well - known   brands in specific therapeutic areas to be promoted in these markets . 

 Approach : The tool that I selected , “ Learning Launch ” , helped me in proving my hypothesis and   making necessary changes in the go to market strategy . In this case , selection of brands in specific   therapeutic areas was very important and selecting specific states , where health care was not well   penetrated in Tier II and below towns , was important . The insights from the pilot also helped in   creating mechanism to connect the pharmacies in these towns to distributors in the larger towns .   There were also changes done in the mobile application to capture sale and process metrics data and   in designing dashboards . The approach helped in scaling up the project to 8 different states within 6   months which helped in additional growth of 5 % in sale for these branded medicines . There was a   greater satisfaction that good quality and affordable medicines were made available to patients across   the length and breadth of these states . 

 Submitted by Gopal Kumar on 31st January 2021 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Gopal Kumar
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Improving distribution penetration and awareness of branded medicines in rural India 

 Learning Launch : 

 Challenge : I work in a pharmaceutical company which sells branded medicines across different   therapeutic areas cross India and many more countries . Healthcare facilities in most countries ,   including India , are better in cities and Tier I towns compared to smaller towns and villages . This is   applicable right from infrastructure of hospitals , diagnostics centres , and availability of branded   medicines at pharmacies . The intent was to provide access to good quality medicines to the patients   in smaller towns and thereby increasing sale of our branded medicines . However , it was believed that   patients in smaller towns prefer to use generic unbranded medicines which are cheaper than branded   medicines . Hence , most of the distribution points and sales force of pharmaceutical companies are   based in cities and tier I towns . 

 Selection : I had some data and a hypothesis which said that people in Tier II and below towns want   good quality medicines for their near and dear ones but branded medicines are not available easily in   these towns . I visited smaller towns in different states and interviewed patients , pharmacists , doctors   in these towns . Since I only had a hypothesis , a plan and an intent , I was not sure about the success of   the plan . The project will require a large field force when operations will be in full scale . That ’s when   I selected learning launch tool to quickly experiment in the market place . 

 Application : I deployed a team of 9 members to start a pilot project in one of the states in India . Each   member had to visit doctors and pharmacists in 24 smaller towns , twice a month . The purpose was to   increase awareness and educate doctors about well - known branded medicines and to make our   branded medicines available at 3 to 4 pharmacies in these towns . The team had to also connect these   pharmacies to large distributors in the tier I towns who would supply medicines to these pharmacies .   Members from various functions like finance , distribution , strategy , human resources also visited   these towns along with the 9 members for insights . Data during the pilot was captured by the 9   member team in specific formats through a mobile application . 

 Insight :   Insights from the data captured in the mobile application and from the conversations with   doctors , patients and pharmacies were very encouraging . I found that there were a set of patients   that had prescription of a doctor that he / she visited in a city and purchased branded medicines which   were available in a pharmacy in the small town . There were also a few doctors in these towns who   prescribed branded medicines to a few patients when they wanted a quick recovery . These doctors   also preferred branded medicines in certain therapies . Such insights helped in selecting well - known   brands in specific therapeutic areas to be promoted in these markets . 

 Approach : The tool that I selected , “ Learning Launch ” , helped me in proving my hypothesis and   making necessary changes in the go to market strategy . In this case , selection of brands in specific   therapeutic areas was very important and selecting specific states , where health care was not well   penetrated in Tier II and below towns , was important . The insights from the pilot also helped in   creating mechanism to connect the pharmacies in these towns to distributors in the larger towns .   There were also changes done in the mobile application to capture sale and process metrics data and   in designing dashboards . The approach helped in scaling up the project to 8 different states within 6   months which helped in additional growth of 5 % in sale for these branded medicines . There was a   greater satisfaction that good quality and affordable medicines were made available to patients across   the length and breadth of these states . 

 Submitted by Gopal Kumar on 31st January 2021
### Output: 