Merck Best at Meeting Managed
Care Executives' Overall Needs, Cognet-X, Inc. Reports
FEASTERVILLE---(Oct. 29, 2001)---For
the second consecutive ranking period, leading managed care pharmacy directors
rated Merck & Co. as the pharmaceutical corporation that best met their
overall needs, Cognet-X, Inc. announced today.
Repeating its performance from the
first quarter of 2001, Merck ranked first in the twice-yearly Corporate
Assessment Total Rankings component of Cognet-X’s PAR-Rx (Promotional
Assessment Research) Report™. In the third-quarter Corporate Assessments,
PAR-Rx panelists also ranked Merck first as a provider of Value-Added Services
to the managed care market.
Merck won the respect of many PAR-Rx
panelists for breadth of products as well as intangibles such as its
“integrity, knowledge of my business and of managed care as a whole,” as one
pharmacy executive remarked.
Several other respondents singled out
Merck account managers and their overall contribution to the company’s
success. “[Account manager] Works hard to create a partnership and a win-win
situation…Reps are extremely well trained, professional and empowered,” one
panelist explained.
GlaxoSmithKline ranked second behind
Merck, up two places from the first-quarter ranking period. PAR-Rx panelists
cited GlaxoSmithKline’s knowledgeable account personnel and the company’s
comprehensive disease management programs as key factors in the company’s
success.
Interestingly, GlaxoSmithKline
actually received 19% more “best” mentions than did Merck. However, when
Cognet~X’s proprietary Scale of Influence factor was applied, Merck
emerged with the higher ranking. GlaxoSmithKline also ranked first in three of
the seven Corporate Assessment categories.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. placed
third in the third-quarter Overall Needs rankings, followed by Aventis Pharma AG
and AstraZeneca PLC, which ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. AstraZeneca
gained ground in the most recent ranking; panelists ranked the company sixth in
the first-quarter Overall Needs ranking.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. moved up
onto the top-10 list in the third-quarter, after finishing 11th in
the 1Q Overall Needs ranking.
About the PAR-Rx Report
Cognet-X's PAR-Rx Report is a year-round service that
provides the pharmaceutical industry with real-time, Internet-based competitive
intelligence on pharmaceutical company promotion to influential managed care
pharmacy directors.
The Report offers Cognet-X clients the ability to
evaluate and analyze variable differences that are critically important to their
decision-making process. The Report collects comprehensive data that can be
segmented and analyzed to provide clients with "21st-Century solutions to
their 21st-Century challenges."
About Cognet-X
Cognet-X offers the pharmaceutical industry market
research, consulting and software development that help companies build and
refine their relationships with numerous customer bases, including the managed
care community. Based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Cognet-X is privately held
and employee owned.
For more information on the PAR-Rx Report or other
valuable Cognet-X products, please contact Robert E. Houghton (extension 101) at
(215) 396-8300 or via e-mail at robh@cognetx.com.
