Patient Empowerment: Consequences for Pharmaceutical Marketing and for the Patient–Physician Relationship - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 430

presence, have accumulated therapy and/or disease knowledge and whose reputation
exert a strong influence over other patients and physicians, payers, or regulators.
Firm interaction with POLs is particularly important during therapy launch, a
time when uncertainty is higher and consumers need to learn and form beliefs about
its quality (see Camacho et al. 2011 ; Narayanan et al. 2005 ). Thus, when negotiat-
ing market access, POLs may play a key role in influencing payers' willingness to
reimburse the new drug.
Some firms already invest important resources in their relationship with POLs,
especially with patient support organizations that represent the interests of the
patient population. These organizations strive for better access to medicines, ade-
quate care for patients, and seek to have an influence on regulators and payers
(Herxheimer 2003 ) and clinicians (Garattini and Chalmers 2009 ). Take the case of
Britain's Lymphoma Association, an organization that offers access to medical
information for lymphatic cancer patients and their families and friends ( http://
www.lymphoma.org.uk/ ). This patient support organization offers non-branded
information to patients, but also information for medical professionals, which is
provided in collaboration with Roche (Herxheimer 2003 ).
Patient support organizations often lack adequate resources and, therefore, trans-
parent, open, and interactive relationships between patient organizations and
pharmaceutical firms are seen as win-win situations (Herxheimer 2003 ). In many
therapeutic areas, there are opportunities for firms to collaborate with patient sup-
port organizations to provide better care for patients. For instance, National Voices
( http://www.nationalvoices.org.uk/ ), which is a coalition of patient support groups
and social care charities, received about $840,000 in funding in 2010. From this
funding, only about $40,000 comes from a restricted grant given by Pfizer to fund
the organization's annual general meeting and annual conference (National Voices
2010 ). In its 2010 annual report, the association lamented the near absence of
corporate contributions.
Providing funding and working together with patient support organizations is thus
a good strategy for firms to actively participate in the trend towards patient empower-
ment and indirectly influence all other stakeholders involved in market access. To be
effective and strengthen, rather than weaken the industry's image and influence, such
interactions need to be fully transparent, preserve patient organizations' indepen-
dence, and treat them not as mere recipients of funding but, instead, as active partners
that can help firms guarantee better care for patients (Herxheimer 2003 ).
On top of the patient support organizations, firms should also consider active
programs to collaborate with individual POLs. In 2011, for example, Kristian
Anderson, an Australian patient battling bowel cancer, became the face of a cam-
paign pleading for a life-saving drug to be listed on Australia's Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme (PBS; Cherry 2011a ). 5 Marketed in Australia by Merck Serono,
Erbitux is a monoclonal antibodies (Mab) which targets a protein called “epidermal
5 See story here: http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/survivors-win-ight-for-cheaper-
cancer-drug/ , accessed on March 2nd, 2012.