Quintiles wanted to find out what healthcare stakeholders think about the industry, so the company did the natural thing: It conducted a survey.
For two months this winter, a company hired by Quintiles called up biopharmaceutical executives, managed care executives, doctors and patients. Is it any surprise that these constituencies were not on the same page on a wide range of issues?
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
For one, 81 percent of biopharma executives surveyed said patients aren’t effectively improving their lifestyle behavior to reduce health risks. But just 33 percent of patients agreed with that statement. A question about personalized medicine found that 88 percent of biophama executives and 84 percent of managed care respondents felt these new products will be effective. But 75 percent of patient respondents answered “no” when asked if they had heard of personalized medicine. Respondents also could not agree on what constitutes “value” in healthcare. About 38 percent of pharma executives said any definition of value must include both cost and outcomes, while just 2 percent of patients felt that way.
The survey’s findings are outlined in the Quintiles report “The New Health 2011,” which the Durham, North Carolina pharmaceutical industry services company is releasing today. Jay Norman, president of consulting at Quintiles, said in a statement that the industry needs to address the multiple perceptions of value as new drugs are being developed.
“The gaps we are seeing in the new report suggest that these constituencies need to be aligned and working together if we are to truly improve healthcare in this country,” he said.
Survey sample respondents included 200 biopharmaceutical executives at the director level or above, 153 managed care executives at the director level or above, 400 primary care physicians, 103 board-certified specialists and 1,000 U.S. adults 18 and older who were diagnosed with and being treated for a chronic illness. Richard Day Research in Illinois conducted the phone survey on behalf of Quintiles.
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While the Quintiles report makes clear that the health industry needs to find ways to get the various stakeholders on the same page, what is suggested less explicitly is the role that Quintiles would have in that endeavor. It’s the second year for the survey. Quintiles released a similar survey last year on the heels of unveiling its new marketing campaign for “The New Health,” a phrase that Quintiles adopted to describe the changing healthcare landscape. Under the “The New Health” branding, Quintiles has touted its ability to go beyond being a clinical research provider to pharmaceutical companies and emphasized its commercial, consulting and capital capabilities.
While Quintiles may be the largest of the clinical research organizations angling to provide services to pharmaceutical companies, it is not the only one. The largest CROs have followed Quintiles in positioning themselves as “strategic partners” to pharma companies. Some of the mid-sized CROs, such as Raleigh, North Carolina-based INC Research, have stepped up their M&A activity to secure the scale and the expertise to partner with pharmaceutical companies on drug development and commercialization.
The findings from Quintiles’ survey aren’t earth shattering. It hardly comes as a surprise that pharmas, payers, patients and doctors are “misaligned,” to use the phrasing of the report. The report suggests that this discord has implications for drug development and adds that in the New Health, “the pressure to conduct this (clinical) research quickly, at less cost and with less risk to patients has never been greater.” It’s hard to argue with that conclusion as the rising pressures on pharma companies have led to the growth in outsourcing work that has fueled the CRO industry’s growth.
Quintiles will be a player in providing services in what it describes as the “New Health.” But it will have company in this evolving space. The “New Health” may still be a new phrase. But for CROs, it’s the same game of companies angling for new and bigger pieces of healthcare business.
