eyeforpharma Whitepaper – Patient Centric Profitability

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Five key activities to take patient-focus and profitability to the next level:

So, what can be taken from The Aurora Project to help the industry more effectively meet both patient needs and business needs?

  1. Engage patients: While some respondents believe pharma is doing enough to engage patients, others feel more needs to be done. Jens Lipinski, Head of Patient Relations at Bayer Vital, Germany, emphasized the value of engaging patients, stating, “Patients bring unique insights based on their experience with a drug and its current therapeutic environment. They can highlight areas of unmet need that clinicians may have underestimated.” More time spent gathering insights from patients through research, engagement and listening was a recommendation made by Sequeira, while Lipinski also feels that pharma’s activities need to be based on, “whether they improve patient outcomes or not.”

  2. Budget/resources: An appropriate budget to act on patient-focused ideas was felt to be vital by respondents, with only 38% agreeing that their company budget was appropriate. Lipinski says, “I am convinced that the early investment in patient engagement and interaction will save money in the long run, like prevention measures or vaccinations do in real health care.” Shaw feels, “Spending money on only those things that help patients in the short and long-term DOES lead to better business results.” She also believes, however, that “Integrating patients along the way is not an expensive thing to do. Putting patients on steering committees for protocol development can save a lot of time in protocol amendments during the clinical trial.” Service Team Strategy Partner at Ashfield, John Gerow’s opinion that budgets and resources are wasted on developing products that aren’t really patient-focused, but rather designed around sales, was backed up by Waterhouse, who said, “If patient-centricity is not at the core of your company, you’ll make decisions that are more for-profit than for-patient.”

  3. Measurement: It was felt that the power of big data can be harnessed to assess whether patient adherence and treatment persistence have improved in order to develop more direct relationships with patients. While 42% of respondents measure patient-focused efforts and 43% include patient-focused goals in personal objectives, this was felt to be an area with room for improvement. Lipinski highlighted that measurement tools are expensive, suggesting, “Finding robust surrogates can help to prove the value [of patient focus].”

  4. Training: Only 39% of respondents agree that sufficient training is given to employees, with 78% stating that they don’t know how to train people to behave in a patient-focused manner. As Lipinski pointed out, “We should keep in mind that every mistake from any company will affect trust in pharma as a whole – and thereby limit the possible success for all others.” In other words, pharma can’t afford to make mistakes that might reduce patient trust and, therefore, better training in patient focus is fundamental.

  5. Focus across all departments: There was a general consensus that everyone should be doing their part to engage in patient-focused efforts, thus embedding patient focus across an entire company. Lipinski said, “Only the integration of different functional expertise and methods will allow gaining a comprehensive patient understanding,” adding, “Allowing each department to develop its patient ‘picture,’ then to share those across functions, and finally to agree on beneficial activities, is the ideal approach.”

It’s time to act with confidence

The importance of being able to deliver on their patient-focused missions was regarded by 86% of respondents as an 8 or more on a 10-point scale (52% gave a score of 10 on the 10-point scale). However, only 21% feel confident that pharma can deliver on such missions, giving an 8 or more on a 10-point scale. To achieve a balance of patient focus and profitability, Waterhouse has advised, “Doing good and doing well.” This involves listening to patients in order to provide the best treatment options.

Finding the “sweet spot” where both patient needs and business needs can be met creates a winning situation for all stakeholders. In this respect, The Aurora Project has demonstrated that companies now need to act with confidence to meet their twin goals of patient focus and profitability in the dawn of a new humanistic selling age.

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Five key activities to take patient-focus and profitability to the next level:

So, what can be taken from The Aurora Project to help the industry more effectively meet both patient needs and business needs?

1. Engage patients: While some respondents believe pharma is doing enough to engage patients, others feel more needs to be done. Jens Lipinski, Head of Patient Relations at Bayer Vital, Germany, emphasized the value of engaging patients, stating, “Patients bring unique insights based on their experience with a drug and its current therapeutic environment. They can highlight areas of unmet need that clinicians may have underestimated.” More time spent gathering insights from patients through research, engagement and listening was a recommendation made by Sequeira, while Lipinski also feels that pharma’s activities need to be based on, “whether they improve patient outcomes or not.”

2. Budget/resources: An appropriate budget to act on patient-focused ideas was felt to be vital by respondents, with only 38% agreeing that their company budget was appropriate. Lipinski says, “I am convinced that the early investment in patient engagement and interaction will save money in the long run, like prevention measures or vaccinations do in real health care.” Shaw feels, “Spending money on only those things that help patients in the short and long-term DOES lead to better business results.” She also believes, however, that “Integrating patients along the way is not an expensive thing to do. Putting patients on steering committees for protocol development can save a lot of time in protocol amendments during the clinical trial.” Service Team Strategy Partner at Ashfield, John Gerow’s opinion that budgets and resources are wasted on developing products that aren’t really patient-focused, but rather designed around sales, was backed up by Waterhouse, who said, “If patient-centricity is not at the core of your company, you’ll make decisions that are more for-profit than for-patient.”

3. Measurement: It was felt that the power of big data can be harnessed to assess whether patient adherence and treatment persistence have improved in order to develop more direct relationships with patients. While 42% of respondents measure patient-focused efforts and 43% include patient-focused goals in personal objectives, this was felt to be an area with room for improvement. Lipinski highlighted that measurement tools are expensive, suggesting, “Finding robust surrogates can help to prove the value [of patient focus].”

4. Training: Only 39% of respondents agree that sufficient training is given to employees, with 78% stating that they don’t know how to train people to behave in a patient-focused manner. As Lipinski pointed out, “We should keep in mind that every mistake from any company will affect trust in pharma as a whole – and thereby limit the possible success for all others.” In other words, pharma can’t afford to make mistakes that might reduce patient trust and, therefore, better training in patient focus is fundamental.

5. Focus across all departments: There was a general consensus that everyone should be doing their part to engage in patient-focused efforts, thus embedding patient focus across an entire company. Lipinski said, “Only the integration of different functional expertise and methods will allow gaining a comprehensive patient understanding,” adding, “Allowing each department to develop its patient ‘picture,’ then to share those across functions, and finally to agree on beneficial activities, is the ideal approach.”

It’s time to act with confidence

The importance of being able to deliver on their patient-focused missions was regarded by 86% of respondents as an 8 or more on a 10-point scale (52% gave a score of 10 on the 10-point scale). However, only 21% feel confident that pharma can deliver on such missions, giving an 8 or more on a 10-point scale. To achieve a balance of patient focus and profitability, Waterhouse has advised, “Doing good and doing well.” This involves listening to patients in order to provide the best treatment options.

Finding the “sweet spot” where both patient needs and business needs can be met creates a winning situation for all stakeholders. In this respect, The Aurora Project has demonstrated that companies now need to act with confidence to meet their twin goals of patient focus and profitability in the dawn of a new humanistic selling age.

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