Gaining Support for Patient Adherence Programs and Effective Resource Allocation to Drive Adherence

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Biopharmaceutical; Biotech; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Chemical; Health Care; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Abbvie; Alkermes; Amgen; Bayer; Biogen; Celgene; Eisai; Genentech; Janssen; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; LEO Pharma; OTSUKA; Sanofi; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; UCB Pharma

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 20 leaders with deep experience in managing patient adherence operations at 16 leading biopharmaceutical companies.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Examining Current and Future Staffing and Investment Trends
• Structure, Process & Vendor Management: Examining Where Adherence Groups Report and Program Management Trends
• Leadership: Activities and Channels
• Adherence Programs: Strategic and Tactical Options
• Measuring Strategy Effectiveness

• Staffing - Contractors and Consultants: On average, companies utilized four contracted FTEs for every in-house FTE, not including call centers.
• Structure - Budget Allocation: Most large biopharma reported that they allocate budget for programs on a per product basis, while some small-medium biopharma take into account revenue of products.
• Program Content - Two Major Groups: Activities within patient adherence groups are usually broken into two groups: financial activities to help patients receive access to the drugs and behaviorally-focused activities that influence the patients to stay on drug.

• Total number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) dedicated to adherence program design and management
• Change in staffing trend over the past three years and anticipated staffing change in the next three years
• Total investment into adherence program design and management and percentage of overall organization budget specifically allocated to adherence program design and management
• Adherence program investment strategy
• Investment into key patient adherence activities

• Current new product development stage at which adherence group’s role begins and ideal stage at which it should actually begin
• Organization structure of adherence team
• Reporting relationship of staff tasked with adherence program design and management
• Budget location for adherence design and management activities
• Agencies/vendor partners providing the best experience in regards to strategy, design, implementation and management for adherence programs
• Total number of vendors and agencies with whom adherence groups partner across all the supported brands
• Percentage of adherence programs customized as per patient segments
• Number of in-market adherence programs supported and number of programs in development

• Role of adherence group with respect to person-to-person and digital interface adherence activities
• Target audience for adherence programs

• Integrated strategy addressing behavioral, socioeconomic and therapy nuances
• Patient adherence program toolbox
• Case example 1: Copay programs/insurance navigator - Decreasing cost-aversion through copay/coverage initiatives
• Case example 2: One-on-one support - Connecting patients with HCP/nurse to overcome adherence barriers
• Case example 3a: Community platform - Developing patient-lead programs to impact the community
• Case example 3b: Community platform - Understanding and influencing adherence behavior through community
• Case example 4a: Behavioral interventions - Increasing patient connections through behavioral interventions
• Case example 4b: Behavioral interventions - SIMPLE method focuses on the individual needs of the patient through increased education about the medication
• Case example 5: Gamification - Increasing immersion in brand, understanding of disease and importance of prescription, goals, competition

• Overall effectiveness of patient adherence activities
• Effectiveness of person-to-person adherence activities
• Effectiveness of digitally-mediated adherence activities
• Effective tactics for improving patient adherence
• Primary advancement in patient adherence programs over the past several years having the most positive impact on improving medication adherence
• Importance of different types of anonymized and aggregated patient data to the success of adherence programs