How Companies Can Bridge Frontline Feedback with Commercial Success

In the final installment of Pharmaceutical Commerce’s interview with Nareda Mills, global president of Patient Solutions at Inizio Engage, from Access USA 2026, Mills examines how patient services can—and should—play a more central role in shaping commercial strategy.

Mills explains that these teams have unparalleled access to real-time insights, hearing directly from patients and prescribers about treatment experiences, adherence challenges, and access barriers. This positions patient services as a rich source of data that can inform more effective commercialization strategies—if leadership knows how to leverage it. Bridging that gap, she notes, requires translating frontline insights into clear business impact and elevating patient services as a strategic asset rather than a supporting function.

She also challenges the industry’s claims of patient-centricity, arguing that many organizations fall short of truly embedding the patient perspective into decision-making. For Mills, effective patient support starts early—well before launch—and depends on engaging patients to understand their full range of needs beyond the medication itself. The most successful programs, she emphasizes, are those intentionally designed around the unique realities of specific patient populations, ultimately improving both outcomes and brand performance.

Access the first part of her interview series with PC:

1. How Pharma Tracks the Impact of Patient Support Programs

A transcript of her conversation with PC can be found below.

Editor's note: This transcript is a lightly edited rendering of the original audio/video content. It may contain errors, informal language, or omissions as spoken in the original recording.

PC: There can be a disconnect between what patient services teams know they're delivering and how that contribution is perceived at the organizational level. How do you bridge that gap and position patient services not just as a support function, but as a driver of broader business strategy?

Mills: So what many manufacturers don't realize is that the patient services team often have more exposure to their end customer than anyone else in the organization. They're hearing from prescribers. They're hearing from the patients directly about what their experience on treatment has been, and they're sitting on a data mine of insights. So making sure that the leadership teams understand that value of the data that they can then glean from the patient services program will so then help them make informed decisions of how they take their brand to the next level.

What does truly effective patient support look like in today's pharma landscape, and where are most companies falling short?

I think a lot of organizations claim that they're patient-centric, but they're not really living and breathing it. So keeping that patient at the center of everything that they do, every decision that's made is critical. And you do that from the inception of determining what you're going to do as you commercialize a product, making sure that you're talking to patients. What is it that they're going to need? What challenges are they facing above and beyond just taking a medication and putting it in their mouth? What else are they going to need for additional support? And making sure that you're building something. that's really truly tailored to the specific needs of a patient with a specific therapeutic area.