Challenge

An American start-up company, who had developed an innovative blood drawing device, approached Visions4Health to gain insight into the EU market access landscape with the aim of finding new market opportunities and to raise further investment to fund expansion. This new device could be used at home and had the potential to relieve pressure on phlebotomy services.

Solution

Visions4Health’s first step was to undertake a full assessment of the devices market across Europe. The UK and Germany emerged as the markets with the most potential to be ‘quick adopters’ of this innovative technology. Of these two markets, the client decided to explore opportunities in the UK only.

With the focus now on the UK, Visions4Health worked with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) to:

• Determine the size of the opportunity in the UK
• Act as a testbed to demonstrate that the device works (for CE mark purposes)
• Understand the level of potential future investment

Using desk-based research and utilsing their network of expert advisors, Visions4Health then brokered a series of introductory meetings with academic, private and NHS establishments. The purpose of these meetings was to provide real-world evidence and crystalise the unmet need of the device. To support these meetings, Visions4Health developed a value proposition for the device and created an ‘investor presentation’ following the running of an internal (client) market access strategy workshop.

Result

• Within the first three months, Visions4Health had brokered 20 meetings with academic, private and NHS establishments
• The client struck a partnership deal with one of the UK’s leading academic institutions to use the device in ongoing healthcare research studies

Challenge

An existing client approached us to help them understand the current and lasting impact that the COVID-19 pandemic was having on the NHS, and in turn what the specific implications were for the client’s commercial priorities and ways of working with the NHS.

Solution

Building on the widespread adoption of virtual communication platforms, Visions4Health proposed an online panel of NHS payers and decision-makers which would convene weekly and be joined by senior members of the client’s market access team. To avoid any impact on the NHS response to the pandemic, the panel ran one evening per week.

Activities:

• The agenda was set around six strategic themes that were important to the client’s commercial objectives
• Aligned to the six themes, Visions4Health used environmental scanning to identify topics for discussion that were relevant to front-line NHS staff
• The discussion was facilitated by a Visions4Health expert to generate qualitative feedback
• Each panel was followed by a short survey which provided a quantitative ‘temperature check’ on participants opinions across the duration of the programme

Result

• The panel ran over an initial period of six months with good attendance and support from NHS panel members
• The insights gathered were turned into thought pieces, blogs and other content housed on the client’s intranet. This enabled the client’s workforce to be kept up to date in real time and helped inform both day-to-day and future commercial decision making
• This project was viewed internally as an extremely high value and even as we begin to emerge from the pandemic, it has been recommissioned for another 12 months

Challenge

Our client was preparing to launch a new, innovative disease modifying drug (DMD) for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and was in the process of submitting to NICE for a technology assessment. This was set within a clinical environment which had changed dramatically over recent years, resulting in the stretching of an already under-resourced MS specialist service, coupled with a perverse incentivisation structure which rewarded hospital activity. Our client’s challenge was therefore multi-faceted:

• To define the payer stakeholders and influencers at all levels of the NHS in England
• To inform national price discussions to agree commissioning and a commercial arrangement for the new product
• To understand the pressures on commissioners and hospital providers of MS services and the dynamics between local and national commissioners
• To map the funding flows across the patient pathway to identify the value that the new product delivers to the patient and the NHS
• To understand how the value messages could sit alongside the clinical messages for this novel new treatment
• To equip the market access team with the tools to a engage payer audience

Solution

With clearly defined roles and responsibilities, Visions4Health worked in partnership with the client to develop and deliver the strategic approach. The following tactics were implemented:

• Stakeholder mapping to identify key customers
• In-depth interviews with a range of payer customers involved in decision-making
• Advisory boards to help shape the market access plan for the entry of the new product, generate the value messages, define the tools required to support prescribing for the new product and understand the experiences of different patient access schemes to shape the commercial agreement
• Support the client to deliver national one-to-one engagement of the medicines optimisation clinical reference group and NHSE commercial team
• Advisory teleconferences with small groups of payers to deep-dive role-specific challenges and generate solutions
• Development of the value proposition messages and materials

Result

• In less than two years, in a highly competitive market, the product was delivering an approximate 15% market share
• Internally, the value campaign was recognised as a ‘best-in-class’ example of payer communication by the global team and used as a benchmark for other markets

Challenge

Key functions of the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) are to identify new, potentially highly effective products which need support through the regulatory and approvals process, and to provide tailored support for selected innovations which have been given NICE approval.

Visions4Health was asked to support the AAC to accelerate the uptake of high-impact innovation which was:

• On track to receive a NICE recommendation
• To be reimbursed through a novel funding mechanism
• Required a primary care delivery model to maximise the benefit to the population in England, at a time when primary care was seeing unprecedented demand for its services
• To be led locally by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSN) who were responsible for system engagement and the development of a local plan to implement the innovation within the local lipid management pathway

Solution

AHSN teams are made up of a range of professionals, some from a clinical background, some with cardiovascular expertise and others with project management skills. Visions4Health worked in partnership with the AAC to develop a toolkit for the AHSNs to support their local engagement with system leaders by providing:

• The case for change – why should lipid management be a priority for improvement?
• The opportunity to improve the outcomes of patients with CVD, particularly those in deprived areas with limited access to the NHS
• A clinical profile of the innovation
• A synopsis of funding options to support service transformation

Feedback on the content of the toolkit was obtained by direct interaction with AHSN programme leaders. When completed, the toolkit was rolled-out to the AHSN teams via a series of virtual webinars.

Result

• Visions4Health developed the toolkit as an interactive pdf. An integral part of the toolkit is a nine-step process for AHSNs to follow to support the implementation of the innovation into the local lipid management pathway
• Visions4Health co-facilitated a series of webinars with the AHSN cardiovascular project teams. All webinars were well-attended and provided an opportunity for each AHSN to share their ideas and concerns and ask any questions regarding the programme
• Feedback from the AHSNs was overwhelmingly positive:
  • “Can we have a toolkit like this for all our programmes”
  • “Thank you, this will be really helpful”
• Visions4Health were commissioned to develop a medicines optimisation pack to support decision-making by formulary committees. The pack was cascaded by NHS England to medicines optimisation leads and chief pharmacists.