Medication non-adherence costs are skyrocketing. Approximately50 percent of patients do not take their medication as prescribed,costing pharmaceutical companies an estimated $637 billion inrevenue each year. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies arefeeling pressure to differentiate themselves from the competitionin the eyes of providers by offering value-based, “beyond-the-pill”services. In light of these trends, pharma companies are partneringwith vendors and payers to deliver value and improve adherence.

Most of the large pharmaceutical companies are working withvendors to power their patient support programs. The programs aimto improve patient adherence and engagement for chronic conditionsthrough education and support. While the various patient programshave similar goals, they seek to differentiate themselves withunique offerings. For example, for basic diabetes education, most pharma companies offerweb and print content with topics ranging from blood glucose tonutrition and activity.

Since cost is a common barrier to patients staying on theirmedication, most companies include financial support, as well. Somepatient support programs differentiate themselves by including anelement of human support. These programs offer call centers, whichgive patients the ability to ask specific questions. Some pharmacompanies go to the next level, offering one-on-one coaching withcertified diabetes educators, where patients can receivecustomized, educational and therapeutic support from a clinician.At the same time, some patient programs are incorporating a digitalstrategy with apps aimed at improving education and adherence.There are a variety of apps being offered through the programs;some have handy medication reminders, while others have the abilityto track activity, food, and/or blood glucose meter data in orderto drive insights.

We are also seeing a trend of pharma partnering with payers toimprove patient health outcomes. This trend is partially motivatedby providers asking for value-based services. An added benefit isthat, by partnering with payers, pharma can access claims datawhich can allow them to target at-risk patients early. Withgroundbreaking pay-for-performance contracts emerging betweenpharmaceutical companies and payers, such as the recent agreementbetween Merck and Aetna for Januvia or Eli Lilly and HarvardPilgrim for Trulicity, there has been a greater focus on improvingpatient outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction and reducinghospital readmissions. Aetna recently announced a partnership withMedtronic and is partnering with Johnson & Johnson/Animas,tying payments to diabetes patients’ A1C outcomes. Tech companiesare also joining the diabetes landscape with Google, IBM Watson andsensor companies partnering to create predictive analyticssolutions that capture blood glucose and adherence data in order topreemptively alert a patient when they might hit a low based ontheir historical trends.

Different stakeholders like pharmaceutical companies, payers,providers, and tech companies are collaborating to influencebehavior change. In response to pressure from providers and payers,pharma companies are partnering with vendors to improve theirpatient support programs. With a focus on accelerating outcomes,there has also been a trend of data-sharing between pharma, payersand providers, which can help target those at-risk forcomplications and hospitalizations. By partnering with vendorsoffering cloud-based solutions, companies are making dataaccessible to patients and their providers, so that clinicians canintervene when necessary. As a result of these innovativepartnerships, patients are receiving more personalized support whenthey need it, so that they can better manage their chronicconditions, stay adherent to their medication, and ultimatelyreduce the cost of care.