Have you heard of the saying, “Don’t wait til you’re thirsty to dig a well?” In a recent interview conducted by Covance, 47% of health care industry professionals in the US stated that they initiated market access activities at either Phase III or peri-launch, even though only 12% agreed that this was appropriately timed. As a matter of fact, 88% of the respondents believed that the ideal time to bring in market access folks was at Phase II–or even before then. I believe that these statistics are especially relevant for products that are first-to-market.

Market access teams can help a product achieve preferred formulary status, fast uptake, and a favorable market share. However, if the product has crummy data to begin with, there’s not much that anyone can do other than to generate new data that can actually be used to support the desired messages (though this can take additional YEARS). Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed this sad reality before and wished that the manufacturer had consulted someone who could inform clinically meaningful endpoints or relevant study population that would reflect the realistic target population for the product.

In order to avoid pushing a cart with square wheels, it’s important to involve your market access folks starting Phase II–don’t wait until Phase III.

It’s time to make big strides and turn heads–let’s go.