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Substitution Monitor: Physician and Pharmacy Activities at a Glance

The Substitution Monitor combines the pharmaceutical registration number (PZN) prescribed by the physician with the corresponding PZN dispensed at the pharmacy, bringing together both perspectives in a single database. This gives you powerful analytics options that provide full transparency from the initial prescription through to billing data for the filled prescription.

Why Monitoring Substitution Matters

✔ Identify the extent to which the product prescribed by the physician is actually dispensed in the pharmacy

✔ Analyze how often the prescribed product is substituted by another product at the pharmacy (substitution rate)

✔ Capture the impact of rebate contract tenders

✔ Determine gains and losses from import prescriptions

✔ Track your products’ performance in the market at an early stage or during ongoing campaigns

✔ Monitor a wide range of different use cases

Database

The data foundation consists of prescription scans from the pharmacy billing systems in Germany. We provide a one-to-one link between the prescribed pharmaceutical registration number (prescription) and the corresponding pharmaceutical registration number dispensed in the pharmacy (dispensing).

Representative coverage of approximately 15 percent of all prescriptions filled in Germany
Breakdown by health insurance company, physician specialty group, and region
Detailed differentiation between statutory health insurance (SHI), private health insurance, and green prescription (verification of prescription shares based on SHI billing data)
Monthly and weekly data availability
Valid extrapolation to the total market

How the Substitution Monitor Creates Impact

Example: The physician prescribes a medicinal product for the patient. In this context, for example, 59 % are original products and 41 % are imported products.

Example: The prescribed product is substituted by the pharmacy. In this context, for example, 17 % of dispensed products are imports and 83 % are originals.

The Insight Health Substitution Monitor identifies optimization potential at both the prescribing physician and pharmacy level. The monitoring solution can map all relevant use cases and serves as a solid foundation for in-depth analyses in the following areas:

Originator and import competition: e.g., country-of-origin analysis, price monitor
Generic competition: identification of non-performance reasons (NEG), statutory health insurance (SHI) billing data
Generic competition with rebate contract: tender alert
Focus on physician prescribing: physician targeting, cluster analysis, sales force management, aut idem