Pharmaceutical companies operating in Europe have got to face up to change in the healthcare environment and do more to prove product value, according to Trevor Smith.
Speaking exclusively to PMLiVE, Takeda’s head of commercial operations for Europe and Canada said the European pharma market is getting harder and the speed at which this occurs is increasing.
“The industry has to embrace the new reality and prepare to meet the needs of payers with the data that’s required to justify price and reimbursement.
“It’s more than saying, ‘We think this is important and we think you should pay’. There’s the need to demonstrate your product can meet that unmet need.”
Smith said he would like to see payers become more open to receiving quality data at an earlier stage than they currently do.
But improving the uptake of medicines must also involve the pharmaceutical industry upping its game, he added.
“Industry needs to get better at preparing itself for the needs of payers, [with] better quality health economic data captured through the development of products,” he said.
Capturing health economics outcome data from new products as they are developed is “a high priority” for Takeda, Smith added.
“It is very visible now within the organisation. I’m not sure I could have said that five or six years ago. Now it most definitely is, [particularly] after the acquisition of Nycomed.”
Takeda’s €9.6bn purchase of Nycomed, which was finalised last October, significantly increased the Japanese pharma company’s European footprint, giving it complete coverage in the region for the first time.
The deal also allowed the company to diversify its product portfolio and build up what Smith said is a “growth story [of] five new products over the next two years, up to 20 over the next five years”.
• An in-depth interview with Takeda’s Trevor Smith will feature in the forthcoming October issue of PME