Description
Introduction
After many years of lobbying from patients, enlightened segments of the pharma industry have finally recognized that patient services are a worthwhile way to improve adherence, have a positive impact on the patient experience, and can make a difference to their bottom line. But while many firms have begun to do this in earnest; others hesitate and question whether these services are warranted or appropriate. After all, it is the healthcare professionals who decide which treatments to prescribe for patients, and it is perhaps they who are most directly concerned with any types of patient support.
However, it is increasingly apparent that the industry has a role to play in patient support, and that much is at stake for the industry itself. Why is this? Because while traditional communication efforts have been focused on gaining prescriptions, the reality is that those prescriptions are not delivering the benefits they should to patients, and in return, the patients are not delivering the value they could to the industry.
Consider the following example…
An organ transplant is a life-saving, serious operation. Potential recipients often wait for a year or more – over three years for a kidney transplant in the UK. Consequences for those who do not receive their transplants are often fatal.
And yet, after the operation, roughly one out of four transplant recipients do not properly take the immunosup- presive drugs that prevent rejection, making non-adherence one of the principle causes of transplant rejection1.
This is difficult to understand for many. How could someone go through the anxiety of the wait, the trauma of the operation, and the relief upon learning that they will receive the extraordinary gift of life from a brave or unfortunate donor – a gift that will not be available for some other fellow-patient – and then not follow a simple maintenance regime? And if one out of four transplant patients don’t adhere to regular treatment, essentially condemning themselves to serious consequences, often leading to their deaths, how much lower are adherence rates for less striking conditions? The answer is that on average, adherence to long-term chronic treatment is generally less than 50%2.
How much of a problem is this? According to the World Health Organization3:
- Poor adherence to treatment of chronic diseases is a worldwide problem of “striking magnitude”.
- The impact of poor adherence grows as the burden of chronic disease grows Worldwide.
- The consequences of poor adherence to long-term therapies are poor health outcomes and increasedhealthcare costs.
- Increasing the effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of thepopulation than any improvement in specific medical treatments.
Over the past several years, stakeholders in the healthcare world have intensified their efforts both to understand this issue and to put into place patient support programs that will help. It is one of the few topics on which everyone is in agreement: patients certainly benefit from increased support and payers would very much like to reduce overall costs by enhancing adherence to those drug treatments which they have decided are beneficial; healthcare professionals would like to ensure that the treatments they prescribe are being followed and the pharmaceutical industry benefits by increased sales of their products. It’s a win-win-win-win prospect.
How can adherence be affected? Through patient support, and in reality, just about every patient support program, whether initiated by the pharmaceutical industry or by other stakeholders is aimed at helping patients to access and adhere to the treatments that will help them. In this white paper, we will examine patient support programs via the lens of their principle objective: increased adherence. First, we’ll look at the extent of the problem and how it varies across different types of therapies and patients. Then, we’ll examine the reasons for poor adherence and the need for patient support. Following this, we’ll consider the types of patient support programs that have been put into place and their results and how support programs can deliver positive benefits for both patients and program sponsors through increased adherence.
1 2 3
Ley, “problem of noncompliance affects transplant patients too “.
RTI International–University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center, “Medication Adherence Interventions: Comparitive Effectiveness “. Sabaté and World Health Organization, Adherence to Long-term Therapies.
