The vast majority of patients believe that pharmaceutical companies should provide services that complement the products they provide, whether they are taking long-term, short-term or lifestyle medications, a new US study has found. 76% of patients not only want such patient services but they expect them and look to pharmaceutical companies to be part of the solution, according to management consultancy Accenture, which conducted the research.
Patient who are receiving such services value them greatly and are eager to use them, but for many patients these programmes are not available. For example, while 63% of those surveyed said they want to participate in customer rewards programmes, only 10% report being offered the opportunity to do so. Also, 51% of patients say they want financial assistance but only 10% receive it, while 35% want measuring and tracking alerts, such as monitoring of blood glucose levels, but just 20% receive them, and 53% say they want product information but 48% are receiving it.
These findings indicate that there is "tremendous opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to become more engaged with the patients they treat and truly understand how to help deliver a better patient outcome," said Shawn Roman, managing director in Accenture's life sciences industry group.