Divya argues that patient support programs (PSPs) struggle with awareness and accessibility, preventing patients from fully benefiting from the financial and educational resources available to them. Divya discusses how integrating digital solutions from GoodRx can enhance engagement, streamline access to therapy, and improve patient outcomes.
To learn more, download the GoodRx Yellow Paper: GoodRx Helps Enable Pharma’s GTM Strategies.
Read on for Divya’s insights.
Bridging the Gap in Patient Support: How GoodRx is Revolutionizing Access to Specialty Meds
By Divya Iyer, SVP Go-to-Market Strategy, GoodRx
PSPs suffer from chronic lack of awareness and utilization
Unfortunately, most eligible patients have little to no awareness of the existence of these valuable services, and therefore don’t use them. A 2021 study showed that roughly 3% of patients actively used the manufacturer-provided PSPs available to them, and GoodRx research in 2024 showed that only 7% of the U.S. population used a manufacturer’s savings card or PSP.
A major reason for this underutilization is lack of discoverability—many patients are still unaware that their prescribed medication has an associated PSP or hub, or they simply don’t know how to access its services. In addition, healthcare professionals (HCPs) and their staff often do not have the time or resources to educate patients about the benefits of manufacturer-funded programs that usually have no cost to the patient.
Access hurdles can cause treatment initiation delays
There are common barriers throughout today’s patient journey, causing treatment initiation delays even before a patient makes it to a PSP. Specialty medication access can often take three to four weeks due to prior authorizations, benefit verifications, and complex insurance processes. Even for pharmacy benefit drugs like oral cancer medications, 25% of the patients had to wait 14 days before they could begin treatment. These delays can lead to patient drop-off even before treatment begins.
Retail pharmacy crisis also decreasing access to brands
Exacerbating this gap is retail pharmacies closing at an alarming rate and stocking fewer branded medications. This crisis is driven by several factors, including financial pressures on pharmacies, declining reimbursement rates, and the rise of e-pharmacies. Patients find it increasingly difficult to access branded medications, leading to higher abandonment rates of prescriptions at pharmacies.
This situation is particularly dire in underserved communities, where retail pharmacy closures can magnify health disparities. Some brand leaders I’ve spoken with are working to mitigate these impacts, exploring alternative distribution channels or enhancing the support they offer patients to improve access and adherence to their medications.
The (r)evolution is here
At GoodRx, we believe part of the solution lies in embracing new go-to-market (GTM) models. By leveraging patient and HCP engagement and insights from proven platforms like GoodRx, manufacturers can ensure that their hub services and PSPs fulfill their intended purposes by reaching more eligible patients. Future success will depend on the industry's ability to innovate, streamline, and enhance patient access—ultimately helping patients receive the care they need in a more timely and efficient manner.
As the healthcare industry continues to shift toward a more patient-integrated approach, we’ll continue to see growing investments in PSPs and hubs, particularly for specialty treatments. “Hub lite” models have emerged for brand drugs that don't need a full-service hub with advanced capabilities (Figure 1). Hub lite models often have more digital capabilities, but they too struggle with patient enrollment due to lack of awareness among both patients and HCPs.
Patients-as-payers require a range of access options
A PSP or hub may not be the answer for every medication and every patient. For example, due to copay accumulators and maximizers and costs being shifted to them, patients now play a more active role in selecting and paying for their treatments. And since copay enrollments don’t always happen through a hub, GoodRx enables brands to seamlessly connect with eligible patients by presenting their copay programs and access solutions directly on the GoodRx platform.
Optimizing your PSP or hub investment with GoodRx
Digital platforms have the potential to dramatically increase patient access and engagement with hubs. As an example, GoodRx consistently demonstrates how technology, user experience, and a high-intent patient audience complement a manufacturer’s PSP, further expanding affordability, access, and adherence. GoodRx is also one of the few platforms that serves both patients and HCPs, who are the target audience and customers of a manufacturer's PSP.
With one in four Americans coming to GoodRx, pharma companies integrating GoodRx with their PSPs and hubs can increase awareness of brand affordability programs, streamline patient enrollment into copay assistance programs, and facilitate prescription fulfillment at scale. GoodRx offers prescription pricing, discounts, access to manufacturer support programs and copay information to simplify the patient experience. Embedding these solutions into existing hub services can increase patient engagement and improve the reach and efficiency of their support programs.
Click here to download GoodRx’s new case study demonstrating a novel GTM approach that yielded proven results for a brand and its PSP.
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