Blog
Cell and gene therapy: Are payers willing to pay for a cure?
- May 5, 2017
Finding a cure for debilitating conditions is a long-standing aspiration for many working within the pharmaceutical industry. Indeed, when news broke out of a 15-year-old boy with Sickle Cell Anaemia experiencing 15 months without symptoms and routine treatment,1 interest in the curative potential of the novel gene therapy administered to the teenager increased. However, the […]
Ensuring orphan drug access amidst a more challenging environment
- April 19, 2017
Thomas Mueller, Head of Pharmaceuticals at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), stated at the Pharma Pricing and Market Access Congress in London, February 2017, that the association of orphan drug status with high prices cannot continue and that the only way for orphan drug pricing to go is down. Yet, due to the small target […]
Improving market access to immuno-oncology therapies
- April 4, 2017
The number of unmet needs, whether clinical, economic or humanistic, remains high in oncology, especially for patients with metastatic conditions. With positive clinical trial results in many cancer types, including melanoma, colon cancer, lung cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, leukaemia, and others, immuno-oncology therapies are offering patients a new treatment alternative.1 Interest in immuno-oncology has been piqued […]
Navigating the future of oncology market access
- March 29, 2017
According to many payers, the high prices of oncology medicines are not sustainable and there remains a gap between drug price and value.1 The rising costs of drug development, increased clinical demand and the need to recoup the cost of failed products, have led to new cancer treatments that come with a high price tag. […]
Payer-centric post-launch studies for optimal negotiations
- March 13, 2017
Many healthcare stakeholders want to ensure better health outcomes for patients. However, many new and innovative therapies enter the market with evidence gaps in their value proposition. Since tracking and measuring outcomes entails cost and time, many payers decide to go with simpler and more straightforward financial-based contracting agreements, such as discounting, price-volume agreements, and […]
Co-creating the design of risk-based managed entry agreements with payers
- March 3, 2017
Discussions around risk-based managed entry agreements are growing, but only a few of these discussions come to fruition. Such agreements entail risks for both payers and manufacturers. Often, payers do not have the resources or capabilities to perform extensive risk evaluations and standardise value assessment across the board. Subsequently, many payers are sceptical of innovative […]
Patient advocacy as a strategy for orphan drug access
- February 25, 2017
Governments have integrated incentives to accelerate and promote the approval of orphan drugs and the interest among pharmaceutical companies to develop these products is rising. However, expedited regulatory approval is by no means an assurance that orphan drugs will succeed in the marketplace.
Formulary lock out in the US
- January 29, 2017
Patients in the US often hear the term ‘drug formulary’ when they go to see their physician. A formulary, essentially, is a list of prescription medicines that are readily available in the hospital or that are covered by the patient’s drug insurance plan. The contents of formularies provide a strong reflection of the business priorities […]
Understanding payer archetypes
- January 24, 2017
One-size-fits-all has become an outdated and non-recommendable approach in pharma business. During the period of blockbuster medical products, this approach was applicable – the wider drug developers cast their net, the greater the chances of expanding their market share. Another merit to this approach was that it made strategy development relatively less complex for pharma […]
Challenges for the adoption of value added medicines
- January 9, 2017
Pharmaceutical and life science companies are confronted with increasing competition while working with limited resources, driving the need to improve their internal capability to innovate. Developing new innovative products, however, requires investments, commitment, time, and product potential. How can companies simultaneously work within budget and deliver innovation and value? This dilemma is fuelling the need […]