Physicians’ perception regarding brand positioning of antidepressant drugs, a case study of pharmaceutical companies in Bangkok

Abstract

              Depression is a common mood disorder causing disability and burden to the country while antidepressant drugs are needed to treat increasingly. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among Thai physicians in particular psychiatrists (N = 120) with correspondence analysis and multidimensional scaling techniques to determine physicians’ preference of four antidepressant drugs (agomelatine, bupropion, venlafaxine, and vortioxetine) through brand positioning. Result showed that venlafaxine and vortioxetine were similar whereas agomelatine and bupropion were dissimilar. There were relationship between brand and identified attribute that agomelatine was prominent in sleep component, bupropion and positive affects, venlafaxine with efficacy and vortioxetine with cognitive functions.  A meaningful brand positioning of each brand expressed the relevant attributes regarding the physicians’ perception can be utilized in an optimizing antidepressants’ prescription and be able to find the marketing strategy for improving the brand awareness properly. The integration of the data with other countries especially SEA countries and cluster analysis will enhance benefit of the result in the future research.