How Patients Are Transforming Pharma R&D

The pharmaceutical industry is in the grip of “patient-centricity” – a vigorous, vocal effort to put patients at the center of what it does and the drugs it develops. New positions have been created, divisions re-named, patient declarations written and published. Efforts are underway to change cultures and mind-sets within pharma to focus first and foremost on patients’ needs and priorities, rather than those of the health care professional, as has traditionally been the case.

The movement has a pleasingly ethical, feel-good aspect to it. But it’s driven by commercial, scientific, technological and regulatory/legislative forces...