Correspondence: Carlyle Ware, Client Services Director, Complete Medical Group, Steinenring 41, Basel CH-4051, Switzerland. Tel: +41 (0)61 271 5412; Fax: +41 (0)61 271 5413; e-mail: carlyle.ware@complete-grp.com

¹is Client Services Director at Complete Medical Group, Basel, Switzerland. He holds a Bachelor of Nursing degree and is currently studying for an MBA at the Business School of Lausanne, Switzerland. His career has included international and domestic product management. He was a founding member and managing director of a medical marketing organisation that specialised in the development of disease management programmes that utilised evidence-based findings and clinical guidelines.

²is Chief Executive at Complete Medical Group. He holds an MBA with specialism in strategy development, intervening in complex systems and managing change in practice. He has 19 years experience in biopharmaceutical communications and marketing, including highly successful leadership roles within both industry and communications agency. He has presented at major conferences in relation to medical marketing and communications, and is a thought leader in this field.

³is a senior writer at Complete Medical Group, Macclesfield, UK. He works for CMG's consulting division (ConsultComplete) on a range of marketing and brand strategy projects for pharmaceutical clients. He was formerly acting director of marketing and communications at Managed Health Network (a division of Health Net) in the USA and has seven years of experience in healthcare marketing and communications. He has recently co-written articles on customer insights and segmentation in Pharmafocus.

⁴is a strategist at CMG's ConsultComplete. He has a doctorate in clinical pharmacology and over ten years' experience in pharmaceutical communications and marketing. Richard has worked in both global clinical development and global marketing roles, and he continues to combine these two perspectives in his work as a strategy consultant. His current focus is on understanding how to use patient and physician insights as early as possible in decisions made during drug development and marketing.

Received 19 December 2007; Revised 19 December 2007.

Abstract

The demand for product differentiation is particularly important in today's crowded and highly competitive markets. Increasingly complex networks of customers and decision makers, and diminishing access to doctors, also require pharmaceutical companies to interact with the healthcare system in new ways. By analysing strategies successful in translating evidence into behaviour change in clinical settings, pharmaceutical companies can devise and implement mutually beneficial 'activation of evidence' programmes that can help them leverage successful clinical trials to: increase sales; contribute to the development of new and updated guidelines; and help the healthcare community close clinical care gaps in key areas, providing benefits to patients, payers and practitioners.