Medication Nonadherence Costs Billions in Lost Revenue

Pharmaceutical companies lose $637 billion in revenue annually due to medication nonadherence.

HealthPrize Technologies announced the publication of an update to a research paper co-authored with Capgemini estimating annual pharmaceutical revenue losses of $637 billion due to medication nonadherence to medications for the treatment of chronic conditions. Globally, revenue loss has increased from $564 billion in 2012 to $637 billion in 2015, with U.S.-based revenue losses increasing from $188 billion in 2012 to $250 billion in 2015.

“Medication nonadherence is a serious global health issue that needs to be addressed immediately,” said Tom Kottler, CEO of HealthPrize Technologies. “It also happens to be a critical business issue for pharmaceutical companies, and represents the ‘final frontier’ for them — the only area of their business where they can generate significant top- and bottom-line growth, improve outcomes, and create substantial savings for the healthcare system — all at the same time.”

The update of the report, originally published in 2012, states that by focusing on and boosting adherence across their portfolios, pharmaceutical companies could provide unparalleled benefits to both patients and shareholders. While pharmaceutical companies have historically focused on the physician as their “customer,” with the consumerization of healthcare and a focus on bringing products to market to treat more complicated chronic conditions with smaller patient populations, more attention needs to be paid to patients and their behaviors that could improve outcomes and reduce healthcare expenses.

“The tremendous human toll that results from nonadherence has been known for some time, but until we did the report with Capgemini, the business cost to the life science industry was not,” Kottler said. “With our updated analysis, we have shown that this business challenge continues to grow for pharmaceutical companies, while at the same time presenting them with their most significant opportunity to simultaneously support patients and shareholders.”

HealthPrize provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), HIPAA-compliant platform and services to help drive patient engagement, education and increased medication adherence for healthcare companies and pharmaceutical brands. www.healthprize.com.

(Source: PR Newswire)