BestPharma:Patient-CentricTheNextAction
Pharmaceutical leaders know their companies aren’t doing enough to engage health consumers—here’s how to change that.
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Our findings are supported by the opinions of pharma leadership themselves. According to ZS, which surveyed leaders at 30 leading life sciences companies, 93 percent agree that patient centricity is critical to their organizations’ future, but only 19 percent believe they have made meaningful progress. Benchmarking by ZS also supports our analysis: although 85 percent of pharma companies have advanced since 2018, particularly in areas of developing a patient-centric vision and strategy, the industry has still barely entered the foundational level.
Pharma Self-Assessment
As a follow-up, we also analyzed the digital ecosystems of 20 leading pharma companies to understand how they are engaging with health consumers and patients. Detailed analyses were conducted of every way in which a pharma brand was engaging directly with consumers, and comprehensive summaries were compiled.
Patient access programs (PAP) are the dominant engagement mechanisms, with 75 percent of the companies surveyed providing some kind of PAP—but over half of the companies with a PAP require the patient to click through to an external site for more information. Only eight of the companies provide some kind of app for patients and caregivers, and at least one of those (Novartis) only lists that service on the Apple App Store and not on the company website.
A few even had specific goals for patient engagement, such as selling products through technology-assisted self-selection (Crestor, AstraZeneca) or offering direct-to-consumer (D2C) prescription digital therapeutics (Amblyotech, Novartis). Most, however, lacked clear strategies for patient engagement. Despite continued demand for patient-led health management, the healthcare provider (HCP) remains the primary customer in the eyes of most pharma companies.
Connective Potential of New Technology
Astound Health met with digital transformation leaders from 10 leading pharmaceutical companies at DigiPharma and the Digital Health World Congress, and to a person, they confirmed that their companies recognize the need to engage more directly with health consumers.
Key Findings
Changing market dynamics including the increased cost burden on health consumers, the acceleration of digital adoption driven by COVID-19, and the connective potential of new technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning mean that pharma companies can no longer afford to simply pay lip service to patient-centric care. It’s time for the industry to recognize that personalization based on authorized, trusted information has the potential to create mutually beneficial solutions that engage patients and advance human health.
Of the 20 companies we evaluated, only 30 percent (n=6) had some form of engagement with health consumers beyond a PAP, and most of these were very limited in scope.
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The Next Best Action
It all starts with a customer data platform (CDP), a single source of truth for health consumer data. Pharma brands can progress from creating profiles of anonymous users to de-anonymizing them as more information is shared to building complete profiles of consumers (including trial participation, product use, and feedback) to finally delivering highly personalized information and product recommendations that are relevant for each consumer.
Creates mechanisms by which companies can have direct, unmediated conversations with health consumers, providing feedback on aspects of the therapy that can be improved for a better patient experience
and their HCPs within the pharma company’s first-party data platform, disambiguating relationships and giving companies, HCPs, and patients the ability to share information that may be relevant for patients outside of that therapeutic envelope
Connects companies that develop therapies with the consumers who benefit from them— patients will increasingly recognize the name behind the drug, building loyalty with patients and their ConnectsHCPspatients
Begins a trusted dialogue with a consumer from the moment they receive a diagnosis and become a patient to the point they consider participating in a clinical trial to when they report on the experience in that trial to when they begin taking a therapy to when they share the outcome of that therapy (including adverse events) to when they insist on being prescribed the branded medication due to their trust in the manufacturer
A 360-degree view of health consumers offers many benefits to pharma brands.
Establishes a personal, sincere, and patientcentric set of brand attributes and behaviors that crosses programs and global markets, placing pharmaceutical companies in the same therapeutic envelope as the patient (along with all other stakeholders)
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Get in touch
Astound Health
Contact John Audette, Astound Commerce Global Head of Health & Life Sciences, to discuss how we can support your digital strategy.
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Astound Health applies a clear understanding of customer needs in developing innovative digital solutions that maximize your ability to improve human health. We are particularly adept at architecting and executing digital strategies that support the changing dynamics in healthcare consumer behavior. Patients and other healthcare consumers are demanding more-personalized and moreinformed digital experiences than ever before, and we deliver solutions that meet those needs.