Major stakeholders optimistic about future of drug development, but differ on defining value

Biopharmaceutical executives, managed care executives, physicians and patients with chronic illness foresee better prescription medicines in the USA over the next decade. However, they disagree on a number of vital health care issues, which may affect the drug development process, according to findings in The New Health Report 2011, commissioned by Quintiles, a leading global biopharmaceutical services company.

Specifically, there were important differences in how these key stakeholders define “value in health care.” Biopharma executives are the only group in which a majority includes outcomes as part of their value definition (61%). However, 43% of managed care executives mentioned “cost,” but not in conjunction with “outcomes,” as did 40% of physicians. A significant number of patients could not define value (31%) at all. Instead, many patients were more likely to say “quality of care” as defined by the doctor/patient relationship (17%), as did 33% of physicians.

“The multiple views on value need to be addressed as new drugs are developed. Among these key stakeholders, the differences of opinion in many areas are significant, illustrating the complexity of health care and how value is in the eye of the beholder,” said Jay Norman, president of consulting at Quintiles, adding: “This year’s New Health Report builds on last year’s findings, which showed that this constellation of stakeholders is intrinsically linked within the health care landscape. 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.”