The concept of patient-centric treatment dates back to the 1950s, if not earlier, but it is now becoming a reality as the population of the Western world ages and chronic diseases become the main challenge for financially stressed healthcare providers.
At the same time, other world markets are opening up to regional drug supply and a wide array of population-based drug development issues. Providers are increasingly shifting their focus from products to patients and are looking, above all, for the right outcomes rather than just purchasing drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies too need to focus more on holistic treatments than developing new drugs. They need to find new partnerships and new ways to collaborate with payers, providers and patients, and to combine the information they hold with that of caregivers. GSK, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Teva, for example, are some of the major pharma companies that have collaborated on the development of smart drug delivery devices.
The number of clinical trials has exploded in recent years; acording to the National Institutes of Health, the number has increased 33-fold since 2000. Trials are becoming more complex, last longer and involve more sites, while more and more of the drugs involved are biologics with complicated dosing regimens and administration protocols. An increasing number involve orphan drugs or others with limited patient populations, often in remote locations. Meanwhile, patients are more knowledgeable than ever before and are actively advocating for themselves. All this means that trials have to be designed around the needs of patients as never before.
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