The investment is real. The impact is patchy.
Pharma has built a lot over the past decade. Omnichannel strategies, CRM platforms, expanded digital channels, AI embedded into daily workflows. The infrastructure is there and the budgets are significant, but yet, more than half of HCPs still describe pharma content as repetitive or not relevant to them.
That number came up in multiple sessions. It is hard to argue this is a resource problem.
The pattern that kept emerging: too many channels, too many messages, too many initiatives running separately without connecting. HCPs end up receiving volume and the value gets lost somewhere in the middle.
A question of million dollars
Someone asked a fairly direct question: if a physician can pull the latest clinical data in thirty seconds through AI or research platforms, what does pharma bring to that relationship?
The answer several people landed on: context. The ability to support a doctor to make sense of complexity rather than add to it. Being useful in the specific moment rather than showing up because the brand calendar says so. Several participants said this kind of relevance is what they are struggling to deliver consistently, and it is harder to build than a content library.
Where strategies lose momentum
Every session came back to the same gap: well-designed initiatives that lose something on the way to the field.
- Part of it is data. There is plenty of it. CRM entries, digital engagement metrics, VoC surveys, field interaction reports. Most of it stays fragmented. Feedback gets collected and filed. The path from what an HCP said on Tuesday to what a rep does on Friday is, in most cases, nonexistent.
- Part of it is measurement. Pharma operates on a much longer loop than most industries. The distance between a conversation and a prescription can span months, which makes it genuinely hard to know what is working and slows down decision-making.
The most consistent theme across all sessions was frontline execution. Participants shared examples of globally backed initiatives that struggled in practice. One team had built modular content, persona blueprints, message tagging, you name it. Everything looked right, but it fell apart because the people who needed to use it daily did not see the value in it.
Conclusion: the strategy was solid but ground-level adoption was not.
Human relationships are becoming a bigger advantage
As pharma gets more digital, the value of human relationships is growing.
Physicians want partners they trust. They respond to communication that acknowledges their reality… their time, their patient pressures, the questions they are fielding every day. And funny, even the examples that resonated most at the roundtable were not the most technologically sophisticated. They were the ones that said something clear and relevant in a way that felt personal.
Getting to that simplicity takes discipline and knowledge. Understanding who you are talking to, and saying only what needs to be said.
Conferences are ready for a change
Large congresses came up in most sessions. The format has stayed roughly the same for 15 years. Big booths, high-visibility stands, expensive presence. Several participants said the investment rarely translates into meaningful interaction and some physicians view elaborate setups as a sign of excess rather than partnership.
Smaller, more focused formats kept coming up as what is gaining ground. Spaces where an open conversation can happen and something gets built rather than showcased.
Next best experience
For years, the industry has focused on identifying the next best action, the next best channel, the next best message. Useful thinking, but it tends to optimize individual moments in isolation.
What kept coming up across the sessions was a shift toward thinking about the full experience. A connected sequence of interactions that makes sense together, evolves with the customer, and feels coherent whether someone is in a face-to-face meeting, reading a newsletter, or walking a congress floor.
At Capptoo, that is where we focus. Supporting organizations connect what they already have: turning feedback into something a rep can use. Building event journeys that extend beyond the booth. Making strategies usable for the people applying them in conversations every day.
The changes that tend to create momentum are rarely the biggest ones. They are the well-designed small ones that show value quickly.
These sessions in Zurich did not end with a single conclusion. These are live problems that need ongoing conversation. If this resonates with where your organization is, we would be glad to continue it.
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