Financial impact and affordability of medicines is the number one concern for oncologists in our 2019 Leadership research in ImmunoOncology. Oncologists were asked to choose their top three areas (from a list of fourteen attributes) for corporate leaders to improve most over the next few years.

The sentiment is especially pronounced in the United States where almost half (47%) of the surveyed oncologists worry about the financial impact of oncology medications on the healthcare system and patients. In Europe, the concerns are also shared by a large group of oncologists (37%), and equally viewed as the most concerning aspect affecting corporate leadership moving forward. This coincides with the debate on the value of medicines picking up speed on both continents, and in Europe, more regulators and payors are working together on joint HTA assessments and cross-border purchasing (e.g. BeNeLuxA initiative).

While financial considerations do not materially influence treatment decisions of oncologists, the rising cost of medications is an ever-present worry. The surveyed oncologists fear insufficient value may have a toxic financial effect on the overall healthcare system.

Earlier and accelerated access

Oncologists in our research would like to see better and earlier access to innovative treatments for their patients.

In line with our findings from last week, patient support programs play an important role in making a difference for patients. Aligning your patient support program with the needs of healthcare professionals while further help to alleviate widely held concerns of “financial toxicity”. Communications and marketing functions also need to improve their messages and materials to better communicate value – see our detailed analysis to the right.
Follow our future releases to find out more about better stakeholder management and engagement using digital tools.

Key takeaways:

• Value of cancer medicines is primary concern for oncologists
• Early access schemes do make a difference to patients
• Align patient support programs with value messaging

About the study

The 2019 Leadership Study was conducted with 100 oncologists across US and EU using MDOutlook’s proprietary ONCpulse™ service.

The research objectives were to:

• Define the meaning of “corporate leadership” to the oncology community
• Reveal the leaders in oncology and ImmunoOncology (IO) and to compare / contrast how companies are evaluated by oncologists
• Assess current drivers & barriers to ImmunoOncology treatment use and identify what oncologists would like to see improved by corporate leaders in the IO space

Please contact us if you wish to be included in the distribution of the study.

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Our 2019 Leadership study in ImmunoOncology shows that 1 in 3 oncologists (across the US and EU) are not sufficiently aware of different patient support programs. While oncologists most often recall the patient support programs by BMS, Roche/Genentech and Merck there is no overall corporate leader.

Patient support programs can play a vital part in increasing access to medications and help to improve patient compliance to treatments. Providing improved access to medicines and helping patients in their treatment journey are cornerstones of the current debate around high price ImmunoOncology therapies.

Healthcare professionals have consistently highlighted the financial impact for patients and limited access to innovative medicines as their main concerns in our study. The findings of our study provide an important impetus for patient facing functions such as public affairs and patient advocacy teams to improve recall with healthcare professionals in institutional settings.

Our study will further provide you with better insights and ideas to increase awareness of your patient support program.

About the study

The 2019 Leadership Study was conducted with 100 oncologists across US and EU using MDOutlook’s proprietary ONCpulse™ service.

The research objectives were to:

• Define the meaning of “corporate leadership” to the oncology community
• Reveal the leaders in oncology and ImmunoOncology (IO) and to compare / contrast how companies are evaluated by oncologists
• Assess current drivers & barriers to ImmunoOncology treatment use and identify what oncologists would like to see improved by corporate leaders in the IO space

Please contact us if you wish to be included in the distribution of the study.

Having revealed the top attributes for successful leadership in ImmunoOncology, MDOutlook’s latest release reveals that specific commercial and marketing activities influence about 25% of oncologists’ leadership criteria.

As important criteria for steering successful leadership reputation, oncologists rated the following specific commercial and marketing activities in order of impact.

1. Length of time in market
2. Corporate reputation
3. Medical educational activities
4. Patient access (affordability and availability)
5. Patient support programs
6. Supportive tools / services for healthcare professionals
7. Promotional educational activities
8. Sales representatives and MSLs
9. Supportive digital health solutions

Subtle geographical differences were observed. US oncologist favored “longevity”, “corporate reputation” and “patient access (affordability / availability) to treatments”. EU based oncologists stressed more importance on “medical educational activities” and “supportive tools and services for healthcare professionals”.

To gain richer insight and understanding for your organization and your competitors, we analyzed performance by each attribute based on oncologist perspectives with their chosen life science companies. Get in touch to find out how your company and your competitors performed.

In a future release, we will explore specific attributes revealing company performance and opportunity.

About the study

The 2019 Leadership Study was conducted with 100 oncologists across US and EU using MDOutlook’s proprietary ONCpulse™ service.

The research objectives were to:

• Define the meaning of “corporate leadership” to the oncology community
• Reveal the leaders in oncology and ImmunoOncology (IO) and to compare / contrast how companies are evaluated by oncologists
• Assess current drivers & barriers to ImmunoOncology treatment use and identify what oncologists would like to see improved by corporate leaders in the IO space

Please contact us if you wish to be included in the distribution of the study.