Patient Power: Too Much of a Good Thing?
November 22, 2013 | Crohn's Disease, Market tracking, Patient Understanding, Patient insights, patient behaviour
Mary Assimakopoulos, reveals findings from the company’s Therapy Watch market research data, investigating patient behaviour in Crohn’s Disease and discusses how pharma can benefit from improved patient understanding
In an earlier column I discussed the issue of non-adherence in diabetes and proposed that a better understanding of patient behaviour may improve compliance. In this column, I’m going to be looking at Crohn’s Disease and asking if too much patient power is always a good thing.
Crohn’s disease is a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease that can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract and has a wide range of symptoms. It commonly causes abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weight loss and vomiting but because it affects the immune system it can cause other problems such as anaemia, arthritis, lack of concentration, tiredness and inflammation of the eye.
The Research Partnership conducts a regular tracking research study amongst physicians treating patients with Crohn’s disease in Europe and the USA. Data from this research reveals that surprisingly, despite how much it can affect day-to-day living, a proportion of patients are actively refusing biologic treatment.
According to our study, nineteen percent of patients in the US and nine percent of patients in the EU who are being offered a biologic are refusing to take it, largely because of concerns about side effects. A proportion, around one third of American and one quarter of Europeans, also express fear over self-injection / IV infusion.
Around 700,000 Europeans are diagnosed with Crohn’s disease each year. There is no known cure and, if severe, it can be very hard to live with. Some patients are successful at managing their disease with a controlled diet. A young patient with Crohn’s describes her symptoms on support website www.meandibd.org: “Before diagnosis I lost 3 dress sizes and bled continuously. It took a while to be diagnosed, although I’d had symptoms since around the age of 14. I was off school a lot. People thought I was lazy as I felt so exhausted I couldn’t do anything.”
Most treatments such as steroids will only help to reduce the symptoms. There are currently only two biologic treatments available to patients, Humira and Remicade, which are employed to bring patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s to a state of remission. In extreme cases patients can opt to have surgery, but as this involves removing large parts of the colon, physicians prefer non-interventional options and will only recommend this as a last resort.
What more can be done to appropriately manage patients’ fears to get them on these more effective treatments? Why do some patients accept the (small) risks and others can’t get past them?
Other findings from the survey suggest that patients do eventually “give in” and accept biologics, despite their initial fears, but at what cost to their overall health? Our data reveals that around a third of all current biologic patients in EU and US could have been treated earlier. Almost half (42%) of patients in the US and a quarter of patients in Europe had their biologic treatment delayed because the patient had refused to take the biologic up to that point. It takes between 3-5 years from presentation for a patient to be diagnosed with Crohn’s and the earlier the patient is treated, the better the outcome. Have the short-term fears of the patient sometimes become too powerful, at the expense of the individual’s longer-term health needs?
Therapy Watch found that whilst discontinuation rates are generally low with biologics, there is a small cohort of patients – around 8% – who elect to stop their own treatment, although we don’t know whether this is because they believe that their disease has improved or whether they are experiencing strong side effects. It would seem that the biggest challenge for the healthcare industry is getting patients to accept biologic treatment rather than persuading them to stick with it.
Can too much patient power be a bad thing for patient outcomes? Maybe not, provided the patient is well informed and educated about their treatment options and their benefits. According to our survey, around three times the number of US patients (17%) versus EU patients (6%) actively asked to be put on a biologic. This may be a response to direct-to-consumer advertising, which is only legal in the USA. Are US patients more informed about treatment options? In which case, is patient education the way to improve patient outcomes? Something for the pharma brands to ponder….One thing is for certain, patients who are refusing biologic treatment need to be better informed. Perhaps a deeper understanding of patients’ needs will give further insight into why this group of patients are refusing treatment and reveal ways of changing perceptions and behaviour.
Published Sep 10, 2013 eyeforpharma.com
We are one of the largest independent healthcare market research and consulting agencies in the world. Trusted partner to the global pharmaceutical industry, we use our expertise and experience to deliver intelligent, tailor-made solutions. We provide strategic recommendations that go beyond research, helping our clients to answer their fundamental business challenges. Find out more at http://bit.ly/1euM10E
This content was provided by Research Partnership
Company Details
Latest Content from Research Partnership
AAD conference 2016
Therapy Watch recently presented “real-world” patient data on treatment duration and persistence among European PsO patients
Video: Global Biosimilars Market
Research director of Therapy Watch, Laurent Chanroux, discusses the growth opportunities for biosimilars and the importance of adaptable market tracking for pre and post product launch
Case study: Understanding Patient Willingness to Pay in Emerging Markets
Our client wanted to identify the optimum selling price for their chronic disease treatment in emerging markets, based on patient’s willingness to pay for the product out of pocket.Find out...
From promise to practice: immuno-oncology in action Part 3 – Emerging Markets
Our latest white paper on immuno-oncology explores the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets, with a focus on Asia.
Infographic: HCV EU
Research findings from our Therapy HCV study shows that 28% of HCV patients in the EU are infected by sharing needles or drug equipment.Our latest market snapshot offers an introduction...
Taiwan: Exploring the Healthcare Opportunity in this Singular “Hybrid” Market
Published in eyeforpharma February 2016 by Rachel Howard
Gaining deeper insights within a hard to reach audience
Often a short research study isn’t sufficient to get the level of insights and understanding that you require, especially when working with a hard to reach target audience.It can also...
Living with RA Report
Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis 2016 is a new syndicated report which offers low-cost, high-value quantitative insight into patient attitudes and behaviour.
Heather Desmet appointed new Head of Living With
We are delighted to welcome Heather Desmet as Head of Living With at the company’s London headquarters.
Webinar Recording: The Art of Storytelling in Pharma Market Research
Effectively communicating research insights is a major focus for today’s market researcher, particularly in global healthcare. It’s not enough now just to present the research evidence. We must tell the...