Asembia AXS26: How RWE Fits Into the Product Lifecycle

Ahead of his presentation at Asembia AXS26 in Las Vegas on the impact of real-world evidence (RWE) in the pharmaceutical industry, Tommy Bramley, SVP of Global Consulting at Cencora, sat down with Pharmaceutical Commerce to discuss how RWE is shaping decision-making across the specialty product lifecycle. As stakeholders place greater emphasis on outcomes in real-world settings, expectations for how therapies demonstrate value are continuing to evolve.

Bramley explains that both payers and HCPs are increasingly looking beyond clinical trial data to inform their decisions. For payers, RWE can influence formulary placement, tiering, and utilization management strategies. For HCPs, it offers more practical insight into which therapies are most likely to work for specific patients, particularly outside the controlled conditions of a clinical trial.

He also highlights how these expectations differ for specialty therapies. With smaller patient populations and higher costs, traditional trial designs are not always feasible, leading to greater reliance on approaches such as external or synthetic control arms, he says. In the post-approval setting, real-world evidence plays a role in demonstrating outcomes, supporting outcomes-based agreements, and showing the broader impact of therapies on patient health and overall healthcare utilization.

The conversation focuses on how companies can better align evidence generation with the needs of payers, providers, and patients, particularly as real-world data becomes a more central component of access and reimbursement decisions.