Three must-haves in patient data for complex therapies

By Peter Stark, Veeva Systems

The data used industry wide today — generated from a simple retail pharmacy approach — has major gaps in complex therapies, distribution systems, and patient journeys. For many conditions, especially rare diseases, there isn’t one path to treatment — there are multiple. Patients see several providers across varied settings. Having a 360-degree view of this path is essential to understand evolving patient and market needs.

A new patient-first approach to data is necessary to gain these deeper insights.

Three pillars of patient-first data

Modern data is built on three essential pillars: it is made for today’s complex therapies, it is delivered with flexibility and speed, and it is connected and privacy-safe.

For complex therapies, diverse data sets that combine prescription and medical claims from a myriad of sources are giving a more longitudinally complete view into patients, healthcare providers (HCPs), and the market.

To deliver flexibility and speed, big data technologies are helping make these large data sets more accessible and agile. Leveraging a data network roughly the size of the U.S. population, commercial teams can now get a fit-for-use data set within hours, all with greater precision and recency than before.

Privacy-safe data means data is connected and integrated with a higher degree of accuracy. This level of data inno-vation will deliver strategic advantages to the biopharmas that embrace it.

Close visibility gaps

Consider the case of a biopharma with products treating an ultra-rare genetic condition. There is no specific diagnosis code for the condition, making it harder to detect patients. There are other marketed therapies, but the company doesn’t have complete visibility into prescribing behavior because data for some of these products is blocked. The space is also highly competitive — a cascade of new launches is coming.

A lot of challenges exist to get patients these life-saving therapies. To move with more precision and speed, the company needed to fill data gaps, shorten data lags, and gain a better view into patients, HCPs, and the market.

The company sourced new patient data built with a unique mix of prescription and medical claims that is updated and available daily. This helped them improve data coverage for their rare disease with better visibility into blocked products in their market. Today, the company is using daily patient claims data to find patients earlier and prioritize HCPs based on their role in treatment decisions. This helps them to provide timely suggestions to their field team.

Enable faster path to treatments

The mental health space provides another example where modern data can support faster delivery of medicines. Patients might present with multiple comorbidities. Treatment protocols are complex and varied, and it can take six months or longer for a proper diagnosis.

These dynamics present multiple challenges for an emerging mental health biopharma bringing a new product to market. It is difficult to size the market, understand how treatments are actually being used, and map patient and provider behaviors in a meaningful way. The company needs to understand all the points of contact along the patient journey to inform ways to improve the patient experience. And with a pending launch, they don’t have time to waste.

They sourced new data and tools that are helping them answer key questions in a day instead of weeks or months. By accessing more complete data that is not restricted to a single market basket, they can understand what patients are truly going through along their journey. With a patient-first approach, the organization is learning the most effective drug or treatment patterns based on key patient characteristics and identifying the best opportunity to engage patients and providers.

Put patient-privacy front and center

Biopharmas bringing complex therapies to market need to start with integrated data designed for their unique products, commercial strategy, and operations.

By adding patient-first data into their commercial ecosystems, brands can gain accurate insights that open up new possibilities in a privacy-safe way.

A patient-centric, modern data foundation is a fundamental building block to help biopharmas get the right products to the patients who need them.

Peter Stark is executive VP, Veeva Systems.