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Paul
Simms reflects on the results of eyeforpharmas Patients Weekand
urges pharma firms to do more to make patients the center of their
strategies

Twelve full-length articles, nearly a hundred retweets, over three thousand article reads, and about a gazillion emails

Now that Patients Week is drawing to a close, are we any wiser?

Our survey, which has been running over the past five days, has certainly
given us a snapshot of the huge interest but enormous difficulty
(self-inflicted or otherwise) the pharma industry has in making patients
the center of their strategy.

Unsurprisingly, executives were
quick to leap to their own defence and cite the rest of the organization
as being backward, with 71% claiming that patients were fundamental in
everything I do.

Fifty-four percent believe that patients are
the most important of pharmas customersahead of both payers and
physicians, in stark contrast to the surveys of yesteryear.

One medium-sized pharma company manager reacted passionately when challenged on how much she alone was doing within her company:

We
have large on-line patient communities that define patient insights and
needs, language, and materials we provide to patients. We invest in and
provide real support through education, very valuable and in-depth,
unbranded patient support materials (not just simple marketing
brochures). We provide scholarships to individuals living with certain
disease conditions, and provide support dogs to patients free of charge.
Weve done home improvements projects in patients homes to help them
live their lives more fully. And we support patient reported outcomes
(unfiltered) through patientslikeme.com, which many companies are
reluctant to do.

Others, however, complained of the usual
barriers, particularly regulation and legislationcited by some 56% of
respondents as the number one reason why pharma was not able to interact
with patients.

A further 11% cited a deep fear of adverse events
or negative response, showing that this fear prevails despite earlier
attempts from several individuals to address the issue. (see here and here)

But the need is absolutely there.

A whopping 82% of people said that pharma absolutely needs to invest more in patient services.

Not a single person indicated that levels were in line or higher than necessary; there was a shortfall in every case.

For
me, the question is whether this 82% of people can translate into
significant enough pressure to see through the necessary changes,
despite the forces preventing things from happening.

Will it turn out like many people currently feel Obama's presidency has turned out: all hope and no action?

Patients
will remain an ongoing focus of our coverage at eyeforpharma, and we'll
launch another Patients Week this time next year.

In the meantime, lets translate hope into action, shall we?