One high-impact area in the healthcare space that often finds its place in the backseat is – patient noncompliance. A term that is commonly used in regard to ‘a patient who does not take a prescribed medication or follow a prescribed course of treatment.’ It comes with a steep price, for causing serious adverse impact not just on human health and health system, but also in the pharma business. Intriguingly, such incidents are still not scientifically monitored enough and vigorously acted upon, both globally and locally.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O) has also flagged it as a huge problem, as it reports, 10 percent to 25 percent of hospital and nursing home admissions result from patient noncompliance. Furthermore, about 50 percent of prescriptions filled for chronic diseases are not taken correctly, with 40 percent of patients not adhering to the treatment regimen.
In this article, just after giving a flavor to its financial cost to patients, I shall dwell mostly on its impact on the pharma players, as overcoming this important problem doesn’t generally fall in the area of strategic focus for most of them. Finally, I shall explore how drug manufacturers can translate this problem into an opportunity – as the third growth driver for business, creating a win-win situation for all.
Economic and health impact on patients:
Noncompliant patients suffering from both acute and chronic ailments, pay a heavy price, not just in terms of longer suffering arising out of complications, but also incurring significantly more health expenditure for treatment of the same diseases. According to IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, on average, less than 40 percent of patients around the world are fully complying with their treatment instructions.
Even in the Indian context, the problem is no different. Let me illustrate the point with the example of a chronic disease, such as Asthma. The article published on June 26, 2018 in ‘Lung India’ – the official publication of Indian Chest Society reported: “The mean annual direct costs among compliant and non-compliant patients were ₹14, 401 and ₹24, 407, respectively. Percentage of hospitalization was less among the compliant group (6 percent) when compared with noncompliant group (17 percent).”
The study concluded, asthma is not only associated with patient-specific impairment, but also creates a significant economic burden for the family and society. The major contributors to the burden are the medication cost and hospital admissions. Patient compliance with prescribed drugs can help keep asthma under control, thereby decreasing the economic burden and emergency hospital admissions – avoiding the economic risk from ill health with high out of pocket payments. Productivity loss is another under-appreciated source of economic loss contributing to indirect cost. The rising costs of investigations, interventions, and treatment of chronic diseases further complicate the problem.
Economic impact on pharma business:
According to November 16, 2016 report, published by Capgemini and HealthPrize Technologies, globally, annual pharmaceutical revenue losses had increased from USD 564 billion in 2012 to USD 637 billion due to non-adherence to medications for chronic conditions. This works out to 59 percent of the USD 1.1 trillion in total global pharmaceutical revenue in 2015.
The report highlights,…continue reading….
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