Reimagine market access: Develop local market access strategies to win on-the-ground

National strategies don’t maximise value

Given the gatekeeper nature of national access, it is no surprise that market access strategies revolve around reimbursement approval at a national level. However, the work often stops there and localised efforts are primarily traditional pull-through activities. This is a missed opportunity to provide additional value to customers and generate broader product adoption.

Patient demographics, treatment patterns and unmet needs vary across markets and also within markets at the local level. Consequently, local health authorities have different value drivers and interventions, whether it is improved patient outcomes or efficiency in the delivery of health. Interventions that benefit one locality (e.g. freeing up capacity) may not benefit another (e.g. under utilisation of existing resources). Furthermore, as more local healthcare systems shift towards integrated models of care, they are increasingly likely to value interventions that have a positive impact across primary, secondary and/or social care. There couldn’t be a better time to start building localised strategies that maximise value.

Think beyond health technology assessment (HTA) evaluations

Conventional wisdom calls for local strategies in markets with local HTA processes (e.g. Spain and Italy). But such strategies are applicable even in more “centralised” markets, such as the UK and Germany, where budgets are distributed to local health authorities who are empowered to make localised decisions. Localised market access strategies need to go beyond health economic arguments and reference local system-wide opportunities that resonate with the attitudes and beliefs of local decision-makers.

Value exists in different places and different forms

These local strategies can be informed by an understanding of where medicines and services offer the most value in the end-to-end delivery of patient care. They can also shed light on the barriers to product adoption and treatment. Are there localities where patients struggle to get diagnosed or are underdiagnosed? Which patients face challenges around access to drugs? Are there geographies that may benefit from a shift in treatment delivery, e.g. home care? We recently saw how a market access team achieved throughput to home care for their injectable and addressed significant patient needs by collaborating closely with local healthcare stakeholders.

What can you bring to the table?

Successful local strategies are based on win-win value propositions for industry and local health authorities. It can be as simple as offering discounts or rebates to generate increased preference. Or it can involve offering bespoke patient services (e.g. nurse support programmes) in areas where there are disproportionate barriers to optimal patient outcomes. Finally, it can be as complex and powerful as connecting multiple stakeholders within an ecosystem to combine state of the art diagnosis, medicines, treatment management and digital applications to introduce new innovative treatment paradigms.

Increasingly, offering a differentiated asset alone is insufficient. Building deeper relationships locally can help the industry partner with local health authorities to shape the delivery of health and drive real patient value. Those companies that can unlock local opportunities through relevant access solutions can improve patient outcomes in a much more significant way and be rewarded at the same time.