New startup RXVantage is releasing a really smart SaaS product into a huge market – drug and medical device marketing.
Selling stuff to doctors is really big business – $60+ billion a year in the U.S. alone is spent annually in marketing to physicians by pharmaceutical and medical device companies. 175,000 reps visit offices and hospitals 110 million times per year to pitch their wares.
Today, pharma reps drop by offices in person just to schedule an office meeting with the physician down the road. They often do sample drops of medications and do a little pitching while the doctor signs for them. The average drop meeting lasts 22 seconds, for which a rep might wait up to 2 hours.
Top prescribers are visited by more than 100 reps per week, and meetings are scheduled as much as a year in advance.
Enter RXVantage.
RXVantage is “Open Table for doctors” – it’s web based scheduling software that doctors and pharma/medical device companies use to calendar those visits, manage appointments, etc. It’s free for all parties to use, and premium features are available to the marketers if they choose.
The company is just preparing to launch nationwide but has had a 2 year closed beta in Rhode Island and Massachusetts with 450 doctors and 400 reps from 75 different pharma companies. The results – 94% of the doctors pitched started using the system, and the average rep reported 4-5 more appointments per month.
The premium version of the software, which is $25/month/rep, allows those reps to get alerts on canceled appointments (and an opportunity to fill it), targeting of relevant doctors and other features.
The company has raised $1 million to date and is currently raising a second round of financing.
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