Leveraging early access programs: What drugmakers need to know

This week's Expert View is from Mert Zorlular and Mihaela Vuksic, chief financial officer and VP of market access at Turkish specialty pharma firm Er-Kim Pharmaceuticals. They offer insights into making the best of early access programs.

As stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry, we all have a responsibility to ensure life-saving treatments promptly and safely reach patients regardless of where they live. To this end, by integrating early access programs and other less conventional strategies into a company’s business model for drug distribution, patients who are suffering from life-threatening conditions can gain access to needed treatments in regions where there is a lack of drug accessibility, while at the same time offering benefits to pharmaceutical companies. 

Over the last several years, we have seen a trend towards a more holistic approach to the distribution of novel treatments for rare diseases, which involves a more integrated access model that considers both traditional and nontraditional distribution methods – the latter of which can facilitate patient access to these much-needed medications prior to broader commercialization.