Changing the finish line: Syneos talks bringing payer, patient voice into drug development

19-Jun-2018 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 12:35 GMT

The drug development “finish line” is not regulatory approval, says Syenos Health chief scientific officer Judith Ng-Cashin, MD, who discusses bringing the payer and patient voice into the process.

Outsourcing-Pharma sat down with Ng-Chasin at the Syneos Health headquarters in Raleigh, NC ahead of the DIA 2018 Global Annual Meeting, which takes place next week.

The conference is a “great space” for conversation and neutral safe harbor for sponsors, contract research organizations (CROs), regulators, and payers, said Ng-Chasin, who was elected to the DIA Board of Directors in 2017.

“I think that element we talk about on the [DIA] board of involving the payer voice now at DIA is really starting to evolve as a trend,” she told us – noting that while it is not a new trend, it continues to affect how companies develop new therapies.

“Your finish line isn’t regulatory approval – your finish line is past market authority and really about reaching the right patients and also appropriate reimbursement,” she explained. For these reasons, among others, Ng-Chasin said bringing the payer and patient voice into the mix is important.

“People are starting to change their thinking,” she added, specifically about endpoints and the definition of clinically meaningful impact.

“Sometimes it’s ‘I don’t need to walk for six minutes, I need to be able to get from my bed to the bathroom by myself’ – that’s meaningful.”

Watch the above video to hear more of Ng-Chasin’s comments on DIA and the evolving drug development industry.