Looking Beyond Launch: Rethinking Long-Term Patient Support

As manufacturers and stakeholders work to streamline patient access at therapy launch, a critical gap often persists in the sustained support patients require over time. In the first part of Pharmaceutical Commerce’s interview with Tina Valbh at Access USA, Valbh discusses how the industry’s approach to patient support programs remains disproportionately focused on the early stages of treatment—often overlooking the ongoing challenges patients face well beyond the first prescription.

While financial assistance and onboarding resources are prioritized in the first 30 to 60 days, patients frequently encounter evolving barriers throughout their treatment journey. Without a more holistic, long-term strategy, support programs risk failing to meet the full spectrum of patient needs—highlighting an opportunity for stakeholders to rethink how success is defined in patient access and engagement.

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

PC: From a patient advocacy perspective, what are the biggest gaps you see in patient support programs once a therapy launches? 

Valbh: For patients, I feel like there's honestly a lot of gaps once a product launches or a product gets commercialized. And, we focus so heavily on access barriers, like getting the patient on treatment, right? And, and it's so front-ended on financial barriers, just all kinds of barriers. But then what people forget is the long term. And, patients experience barriers over a long period of time, and we don't plan for the long term. We plan for day one and up to day thirty, maybe up to day sixty. And so, from an access perspective, I really feel like we're not holistically looking at what a patient truly needs, and, we just plan for one phase of that product.