Situation
Healthcare costs continue to increase around the world as pharmaceutical companies invest in developing innovative and specialized medicines to battle the 21st century rise in chronic conditions. These medications, given their cost, are frequently not fully covered by country governments or other payers, leaving patients with the responsibility for covering the cost of their treatment on their own.
To help patients cover the cost of treatment, alternative access solutions are needed. One multinational pharmaceutical company understood that their innovative oncology treatment was not reaching many cancer patients across the world because of issues of affordability, among other barriers. However, it was not possible to implement an access program in all 70+ markets where patient needs existed. The company was looking for support in helping to prioritize countries where an access intervention like a Patient Support Program (PSP) was likely to have the most significant impact.
Solution
Axios believes that effective treatment adherence programs are personalized to the needs of individual patients. To design a more effective solution to help patients stay on treatment, Axios turned to its proprietary Patient Needs Assessment Tool (PNAT).
PNAT assesses the risk factors that could lead the patient to stop treatment and helps determine the most effective adherence interventions for that particular patient based on his/her identified risk factors. It was built around the five dimensions of adherence set by the World Health Organization (WHO). It uses a qualitative and semi-quantitative questionnaire to identify and document individual patient risk factors and apprehensions that may lead to poor adherence or discontinuation of treatment. The results are then used to develop a personalized adherence plan targeting these risk factors to support patients in their treatment journey.
In the case of MS patients in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, local MS patient associations and other parties, the following services were made available to improve treatment adherence and improve a patient’s quality of life:
- Educational sessions for patients to increase awareness and knowledge about MS and treatment
- An on-demand support careline to receive and answer patient queries
- Ongoing treatment reminders and follow-up plans
- Patient forums to help empower and motivate patients and caregivers
- Auto-injectors to ease a patient’s injecting process, available upon a patient’s request
Results
Using insights from APT and primary research, 12 high potential markets were prioritized, and a country-specific strategic framework was created for each market to guide the development of PSP design and implementation.
