In Specialty Pharma, a Sleeping Bear is Waking Up to Digital

Pop quiz: who picks up the phone when you call a Pharma’s Patient Support Program? Hint: it’s usually not the Pharma itself.

Here at Helparound, we focus on the challenges a life-changing diagnosis brings upon individuals and their families, when an entire family’s life is turned upside down by the news of a disease to manage, and thrown into a whirlpool of Providers, Payers and Pharmacies to navigate their new reality. Yet one massive stakeholder in the newly diagnosed patient’s world is struggling to reach them: the Patient Hub, the therapy manufacturer’s patient-services proxy.

Because regulation blocks Pharmas from talking directly to patients – but specialty therapies, frequently biologics, require guidance and patient services so treatment regimens are carried out correctly and safely – Patient Hubs are the intrinsic patient communication arm for the Pharma. Hubs are an extremely important piece of the puzzle for people dealing with chronic disease and high burden therapy, yet many people don’t even know they exist or what they can do to help.

Speaking to numerous Hubs, we found that while other patient-facing players, e.g. providers, have been adopting patient engagement technologies , Hubs mainly work through traditional CRM systems and call centers. Hubs offer wonderful “wrap-around” services to patients by staffing their call centers with credentialed nurses and pharmacists, according to the 2017 Hub Services Report (Pharmaceutical Commerce). But there are many ways to support patients beyond their bi-weekly or monthly call from the nurse. (Full disclosure: Helparound fills the gaps between these calls through mobile: http://helparound.co)

Hubs are projected to support a $165B industry of specialty therapies in 2018. Specialty therapies accounted for 28% of the pharmacy industry’s prescription dispensing revenues in 2016 according to Drug Channel. With the current expansion of specialty treatments, this percentage is projected to grow to 42% by 2021. Yet today only 19% of patients are even aware of Hub Services (Accenture). Patients should know there are support channels available to them – and It’s time to bring this indispensable aspect of the patient communication chain to a mobile, patient-friendly platform.

About Helparound: We believe families facing a life changing conditions need more than an online brochure and a monthly phone call from a nurse. Helparound is activating the Hub-revolution: to extend patient Hub services through a highly personalized mobile platform, to deliver the support these families deserve.