The vast majority of drugmakers are either considering or have already established direct-to-patient (DTP) programs, cutting out middlemen to offer services like virtual care consultations, payment support, at-home diagnostics and digital pharmacies.
That’s according to a new report from ixlayer, based on a recent survey of about three dozen respondents from pharmas of all sizes. Ixlayer is slated to formally unveil the survey’s findings during a virtual panel discussion Thursday afternoon alongside speakers from AstraZeneca and Klick.
Just over 42% of those surveyed said their companies are already running a DTP program, while another 30% said they’re planning to launch one within the next year, and about 21% said they’re actively exploring the idea. Only 6% of respondents said they have no current plans to set up a DTP offering.
That tracks with the approximately 50% of pharma representatives surveyed who said that they believe DTP programs will become standard practice across most brands within the next five years. Another 44% said they think the programs will be common among “certain therapeutic areas,” and, again, only about 6% predicted that DTP tools will be “still rare and experimental” in five years.
As for how drugmakers are currently using DTP programs, the most common answer—selected by nearly a quarter of respondents—was for payment and insurance support, followed by offering savings on medications and digital doctor-finder tools. Less common, at about 11% each, were digital pharmacy fulfillment and telehealth services.
When asked why they implemented their various DTP programs, far and away the most common answer among those surveyed was to improve the patient experience. Indeed, many pointed to an improved patient experience as a key measurement of DTP success, though the most common indicator of success among respondents was whether the programs were able to accelerate time to treatment for patients.
Ixlayer’s latest report rounds out a trifecta of recent surveys that also assessed patients’ and physicians’ views on DTP services from pharmas.
The latter survey showed that doctors overwhelmingly support increased availability to at-home diagnostic tests, which ixlayer suggested represents a major opportunity for pharmas to integrate at-home test services into their disease awareness campaigns and other tools connecting patients to care. The patient-focused research, meanwhile, found that many feel they’d have a better perception of the pharma industry if companies offered more online DTP services.
After surveying “every corner of the healthcare ecosystem,” according to Matt Walsh, general manager at ixlayer, the common thread appears to be “direct-to-patient solutions that feel simple and seamless for the patient, connect back to their doctor—or help them find one—and make pharma marketing initiatives more actionable, ultimately driving better health outcomes as well as commercial success,” Walsh said in a statement to Fierce Pharma Marketing.