Navigating Brand Launch Risks: Can Patient Engagement Help?

Drawing on over 11 years of experience in supporting patient services programs, CareMetx has consistently observed a pivotal insight: programs that actively engage patients, promoting better medication adherence, not only capture previously overlooked value but also set their brands on a path of positive growth. However, adherence is commonly deprioritized in the design of a therapy’s patient services program. This is a situation that risks undermining the commercial success of a treatment. 

(Our latest report—Driving Brand Success: Minimize Risk and Capture Missed Value from Patient Engagement and Adherence— not only offers a comprehensive exploration of this topic, but also equips manufacturers with practical tools to implement patient engagement and adherence effectively). 

The Complex Reasons Adherence Falls to the Wayside 

When patients skip doses, take the wrong dose, or otherwise deviate from a prescribed therapy regimen, they’re unlikely to achieve optimal outcomes from a medication. Though any drug can face adherence hurdles, it’s especially problematic for specialty medications that may have complex administration regimens, product handling, self-injections or infusions.  

During pre-launch solution design, manufacturers tend to prioritize therapy access and affordability solutions. This often involves simplifying the process of verifying benefits—enabling quicker therapy initiation—and easing the enrollment in patient assistance programs to minimize out-of-pocket expenses.  

However, these efforts may fall short if they fail to incorporate adherence strategies as a core component. Without this, patient medication-taking behaviors and beliefs can derail treatment. This disruption often leads to a cascade of consequences: diminished drug efficacy, unmet patient health expectations and ultimately, a decrease in refill rates. While the importance of integrating adherence into patient services programs is widely acknowledged in theory, the practical application of this understanding is often lacking, resulting in programs that do not fully facilitate optimal medication use.  

(Download Driving Brand Success: Minimize Risk and Capture Missed Value from Patient Engagement and Adherence to learn more). 

How Deprioritizing Adherence Creates Risk     

After spending significant time and budget to develop a new medication, manufacturers recognize that they only have one opportunity for a successful launch- especially when it comes to gaining provider acceptance.  

In the event of poor adherence, the amount of real-world data (beyond clinical trials) available to healthcare providers becomes limited. This scarcity of data makes it challenging for providers to assess whether they feel confident prescribing a particular drug. Additionally, if poor adherence causes the drug to appear less effective in real-life settings versus in the controlled conditions of clinical trials, providers may start to view the drug unfavorably. 

Poor adherence can also affect how patients perceive and experience a medication. Without adequate support, patients may not fully understand how to follow their treatment plan or recognize its importance. Many are unprepared for possible side effects and may have incorrect expectations about how quickly they will see improvements. Factors such as patient behaviors, the nature of the therapy, underlying health conditions, healthcare provider practices, and various social determinants can all present barriers to successful treatment. In the absence of effective support for adherence, many patients may choose to stop their treatment.  

Building Adherence into a Patient Services Program  

Given the strong link between medication adherence and health outcomes, and the impact of low adherence on provider and patient perceptions, it’s vital to integrate adherence into a strong patient services program. A best practices approach can help manufacturers capture the tremendous value that’s missed when adherence isn’t prioritized.  

Our new guide - Driving Brand Success: Minimize Risk and Capture Missed Value from Patient Engagement and Adherence – dives deep into these best practices that help manufacturers improve medication adherence and drive brand success.   

Looking for Patient Engagement Support? Seek Out the Following  

Manufacturers that prioritize patient engagement often look to a Hub or adherence vendor to design and execute a program that supports their brand objectives. It’s critical to choose a partner who brings all the capabilities required to support a winning adherence strategy. Incorporating targeted questions into an RFP or vendor discussion helps manufacturers gain insights into the vendor’s adherence processes and capabilities.    

For instance, it’s important to learn how the vendor builds adherence into the program design, and their approach to engaging with patients at the outset and throughout the journey. It’s also essential to assess how they apply technology to drive the program—from facilitating patient segmentation by risk, to automatically triggering personalized actions and delivering analytics that guide program optimizations.   

Many other questions can help manufacturers evaluate whether a Hub or adherence vendor has the people, processes, and technology to drive better medication adherence, higher refill rates, and improved health outcomes.  

For more insights on this topic, download the CareMetx guide, Driving Brand Success: Minimize Risk and Capture Missed Value from Patient Engagement and Adherence.