Why Market Access Strategy Can No Longer Wait Until Launch

Sponsored by Acumetis

For nearly three decades, pharmaceutical companies have built market access models around a linear, milestone-driven approach to launch. However, that model is now struggling to keep pace with how quickly HTA and reimbursement decisions move. Regulatory, medical, Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), access, and commercial teams often operate at different speeds and under different governance structures. This creates structural and behavioral gaps that surface only once access teams engage, by which point key decisions about endpoints, comparators, and evidence plans are already locked in. The introduction of the EU's JCA process is raising the bar further, requiring earlier alignment on evidence and value gaps across functions. Closing these gaps requires moving from linear launch planning to continuous, cross-functional decision-making, where evidence, pricing, and access strategy are tested and refined. Esther Nzenza, Senior Partner and Global Head of Value and Access at Acumetis, explains their model around bringing commercial, medical affairs, market access, HEOR, and patient strategy specialists together earlier in the process, preventing access from becoming a function added later. Organizations can then have the structure needed to act on evolving requirements at the pace markets now demand.