What is the future of market access?

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

pharmaphorum recently attended The Future of Market Access meeting, hosted by the PM Society. Here are some of the meeting’s highlights…

Everyone recognises that market access is important and challenging, but as the Chair Dr Beverley Barr outlined, there is no single solution, or definition for, market access. She stated this was hardly surprising as every stakeholder, whether industry, NHS, NICE or patients, defines market access from their own perspective. But ultimately, all stakeholders want to achieve timely patient access.

This statement was reiterated by the chief executive of Myleoma UK, Eric Low OBE. Eric believes that patients are increasingly important partners as they recognize the multitude of problems in securing market access. However, he said it is critical to understand that patients are individuals and that different patients want different things, in different circumstances, which can be a challenge.

Eric also warned about the need for pricing transparency by pharma, questioning whether the £50 – 80,000 price tags can be justified when pharma are delivering small incremental benefit extending life for only a matter of months. He suggested that there is a need for greater transparency in how pharma sets its prices.

In her presentation, Anne-Toni Rodgers, director of global pricing and market access at AstraZeneca (representing her personal views), called for the champions that are needed in periods of change, when so many others are scared. In this context, she welcomed the current NHS reforms as a way of driving positive change and suggested that companies should come forward and work in partnership to engage with the NHS.

Citing the current funding crisis in the NHS, Anne-Toni presented a model demonstrating how easy it would be to make 81-87% funding economies in the NHS: "It is focusing on things that people in the private sector do to drive change. It is about redesigning care across care pathways. As a pharmaceutical company, if you don’t know what your customer is doing, how can you meet the change?”

She concluded by saying that the key challenges and opportunities of market access can be seen as the same thing: “For some these will be opportunities and for others challenges. However, it is what your attitude is to these things that will make things happen. It is how you view it that will determine your success.”

So what is pharma’s role in this change? To continue to deliver market access as it always was: right product, right patient, right place, at the right price and the right time.

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