We regularly attend pharmaceutical and market research conferences worldwide. This December, we will be attending the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Expo. We look forward to seeing you there. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss our capabilities and how we can help you answer your business questions.
If you are attending ASH and would like to set up a meeting during the conference, please contact us today!
The days when physicians were seen as the absolute authority in healthcare are gone. The epicenter of the health care system is shifting from the doctor’s office to the patient’s homes. This is especially true for chronic diseases where patients’ adherence to treatments as well as their ability to modify their behavior is paramount to improving health outcomes.
Cambridge MA—(September 16, 2013)—Aptel Research, a specialty marketing research and consulting company that provides actionable strategic insights to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, today launched Patient Voices Syndicated Report Series™. Patient Voices Syndicated Report Series provides rich insights into the emotional and rational factors that impact the patient journey through specific chronic diseases in specialty markets. The first report covers multiple sclerosis in the United States. Future reports will cover other chronic diseases in the U.S. and in international markets. Each report captures the various aspects of the patient journey from symptoms to diagnosis to treatment, and identifies issues and gaps along the way. The reports employ a mix of qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, and an analysis of patient social media to create a nuanced understanding of patients’ experiences, as well as brand attitudes and unmet needs.
We regularly attend pharmaceutical and market research conferences worldwide. We look forward to discussing our capabilities with you and are happy to set up a meeting at any of the upcoming events listed below.
American Neurological Association (ANA) October 13 – 15, 2013, New Orleans, LA
In our previous blogs, we discussed the challenges of navigating cultural and language differences when conducting global market research. Those challenges could be described as anthropological; they’re byproducts of human diversity. But the global market researcher must also grapple with the ways in which political, institutional and economic factors influence market conditions and market access around the world. For the pharmaceutical industry, this means taking into account each country’s unique medical environment.
In our last blog, we discussed the challenge of translating ideas when conducting market research in countries that speak different languages. This time, we’ll tackle deeper cultural differences—those that influence behavioral norms.
Some of these quirks are simply matters of local etiquette, which any traveler can study before going abroad. (The thumb-to-forefinger gesture that means “OK” in the United States, for example, is an obscene gesture in much of South America.) Other behavioral differences, however, can profoundly affect both the research process and its results.
Part 1: Translating Ideas
Even when working in a single country, a qualitative market researcher has to be a kind of cultural anthropologist. To achieve accurate results, it’s necessary to adjust for the differing mindsets of broad groups of customer targets (for example, healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers), as well as the subtler influence of factors such as physician specialty, geographic location, and level of education. Those variables apply throughout the market research process, from the design of screeners and discussion guides through the analysis of field work.
At Aptel Research, we stay on top of new advancements in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. These days there is more and more attention on myeloproliferative disorders, mostly due to the discovery in 2005 of a mutation that is present in a substantial proportion of myelofibrosis (MF), polycythemia vera (PV), and essential thrombocytosis (ET) patients. These diseases are hematological malignancies that cause red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets to grow abnormally in bone marrow. The discovery of a common mutation in the JAK2 protein, has lead to an increase in the number of possible therapies to treat the disorders, and the hope that we still may find a cure.
Michele Derai is born in Paris, France. Paris is the capital, and largest city in France, and is the home to over 2 million people. The earliest signs of settlement in Paris date back to 4200 BC, but a permanent village was founded around 200 BC by the Gauls of the Parisii.
Paris is a leading business and cultural center for the world, evoking images on the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame cathedral, and the Louvre. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 and has become the global icon of France, and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. It was built for the World Exhibition, held to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Originally intended to be dismantled after 20 years, the Eiffel Tower was allowed to remain standing after it’s permit expired, as it proved valuable for communication purposes.
The difference between qualitative marketing research and quantitative is clear enough, it comes down to numbers. Do you want to know statistics on what people like, or do you want to find out what do they like and why? Quantitative marketing research will get you those statistics, but you need qualitative marketing research to define which information is worth quantifying, and to explain the MEANING of the numbers. Both methods have their role, if they are used wisely and appropriately.
© 2025 Aptel Research | Global Pharmaceutical Marketing Consultants. Design by EYE/I Creative.
