Episode 5: Patient Centricity in Pharma: Selling Pills Versus Selling Health

Pharmaceutical companies rely on meeting the needs of their patients. If there are no patients, then there would be no industry. However, the pharma industry has an interesting dynamic. The consumer of the product is different from the decision-maker of who is using the product. The patient is the consumer of the product, the prescriber will decide on the product, and the insurance company will pay for the product. Devesh Verma, Ph.D., joins the podcast to explain why the industry needs to focus on a patient-first culture. Companies should be willing to discover drugs that could improve patient health outcomes while actively involving and engaging patients in their treatment. Tune in as we discuss the challenges around patient centricity, how technology can play a positive role in the pharmaceutical industry, and why pharmaceutical companies should focus on selling health – not pills – to the most valuable customer in the pharma commercial model. In This Episode, We Cover:

• [01:14] Devesh’s introduction; overview about pharma’s customers.
• [06:01] Breaking down the patient-centric culture.
• [07:00] Challenges pharma companies face in becoming patient-centric.
• [08:36] How partnerships with technology companies can enable patient centricity.
• [14:48] How pharmaceutical executives can utilize technology to serve the needs of their patients better.

Key Takeaways:

• The life sciences industry needs to focus on selling health versus selling pills which requires innovative thinking and data.
• Investing in analytics and mining data from a real-time perspective is even more critical to understand patient needs and their preferences.
• Although regulatory frameworks will not change much, pharma can still engage with patients within regulatory boundaries to build deeper engagements.
• The industry’s future is contingent on how well it can change its perception, focus on patients, and impact their lives.