By Chris Dillon, Chrysanthe Peteros and Larry Blandford
June 2019

What began as patient call centers for select complex medicines has expanded to a full suite of support services, ranging from financial assistance to patient education: so-called hub services have become ubiquitous in the pharmaceutical marketplace. With the growth of the specialty drug market, in particular, hub services have become a necessity. As manufacturers look to develop increasingly complex drug products, including gene and cell therapies, so too will hubs require a higher degree of specialization and flexibility.

In the mid-90s, the pharmaceutical industry shifted from launching simple, small-molecule drug products to more complex, large-molecule therapies. These treatments required more complicated administration and also came at a significantly higher cost. New businesses began to emerge, offering support to manufacturers and their patients in the form of call centers, predominately focused on financial assistance.1 Each independent service provider played a specific role and offerings were customized as new needs became evident.

Over time, these support services expanded, in part owing to a series of blockbuster drug approvals that would benefit from assistance beyond finances, such as coordinating and scheduling product distribution, clinical support programs, and persistency and compliance monitoring.

Read the full article at the Journal of Clinical Pathways

Affiliation
Precision Xtract.

Precision Value & Health and Precision for Value.

Disclosures
Precision Xtract is a real-world research, health economics, and payer analytics consultancy that helps the pharmaceutical and life sciences companies get innovative therapies in the hands of providers and patients who need them most.

Citation
J Clin Pathways. 2019;5(5):20-22. doi:10.25270/jcp.2019.06.00081